Street Wise In A School
by tornado surfer
Summary: this will mostly be along the original anime story line up until all the girls are introduce, then it will be much more original (i hope) and so if you want to meet the new IS users i will be putting in then open and read. enjoy. note: i'm not sure about the rating, is mostly swearing but later. the humor is my kind of humor, if you no like, then no need to read
1. Chapter 1

(edited for easier reading but still preaty chunky) hello all and welcome to my second (uploaded) story. a word of warning, most of this is in the single POV (later there will be changes in POV but that will be a fair while later) right, well this will be mostly in line with the story line until all the girls are introduced because i have no imagination, later it will become more original (i hope) and be a more interesting read. will have to see how things go in relation to reports so aside from that ENJOY TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES WHEN THE ONLY THING TO ENJOY HAPPANS TO BE NOT OWNED BY ME (i.e. that was meant to be a disclamer, i don't own Infinite Stratos) so i hope you enjoy the story line when i add my own stuff in and if you have watched the anime then you will probably notice that most of it is copied from there.

key:

"takling"

_"thinking"_

'air quoted'

(my comments)

time to read on dear readers

XXX

Street wise in a school

Ep.1: introductions

It was all going so well, my life was stable, well as stable as a master thief/hacker's life could be, no big problems, all my debts had been paid, and those I couldn't pay had been dropped after a little 'negotiation'…

Then the open market request came in for a whole IS unit, grand pay for anyone to bring one in. No one I knew or had heard about had ever managed to steal a whole unit before; my own personal best was a pair of legs and an arm. I didn't even need the money, it seemed like it was just some random challenge made as a joke maybe, but I couldn't help myself, "_I just had to push it didn't I, just had to go that little bit further."_ I thought with a grin on my face as I stared down the group of security guards who had me surrounded, blocking me against a wall next to the black IS unit I had been trying to steal. I hesitated slightly when I again tried to work out what the heck had happened when I touched the damn thing. It was all going to plan, sneak in, find the experimental unit, and get out, simple as can be! Yet the second I touched the damn thing…

I don't fully understand what happened, I had looped the cable around it so I could drag it out and I skimmed it with the back of my hand when I was securing the cable and it burned me. So I now have a strange mark on the back of my hand that I didn't even get a chance to examine properly because then the unit had started sparking and shining somehow and setting all the alarms off, and now I find myself in this interesting situation.

I slipped out my knife from behind me and held it before me calling out to them with a cocky grin, "If we're going to do this then how about we do it soon, after all I'm a busy thief, things to steal and the like." I waited for one of them to rise to the bait. My grin faltered when they didn't move but I recovered and started calculating in the way I do when I have trouble with a problem.

_"Chances of a charge: low on both sides. Chances of them breaking formation: depending on incentive medium to high. Chances of a fight: low to medium. Chances of me getting away with suit: non-existent. Chances of getting away at all: medium depending on various factors including fight and formation statistics. Operation account: botched job but possibility of escape to try again another day or simply move on." _Having run through some of my options I had a plan that had the highest success rate out of them but was still pretty risky, I grinned thinking _"but if it wasn't risky then it wouldn't be fun"_ and so I prepared myself to start.

Taking a deep breath I jumped back and onto one of the IS units wings before pulling out a small smoke bomb I had whipped up before hand from my satchel and threw it down at them. After it went off I jumped down and prepared to rush straight through them but stopped and turned when I heard something moving, I was confused and a little amazed as I saw the unit start moving and just stood there staring at it lumbering to its feet and started reaching, and if I didn't know any better I could have sworn it was reaching, for me.

I stood there until I noticed that the smoke was clearing and I was still just standing there and so I stepped forward and patted the front of the unit and said quickly with a small smile "maybe next time" before turning and dashing out past the dazed guards and out of the building complex that I had found it in and slipped into the many streets and alleys that had been my home for as long as I could remember.

After I was sure that I wasn't being followed I made my way to my little bunker I had made in the terminal for an abandoned train station, calling as I came closer "deactivate security weapons 1 through 5, voice recognition code 666 confirm" and waited for the robotic "voice recognition confirmed, weapons deactivated" before I continued in and called out the required phrases to reactivate the defences I had set up in case anyone was stupid or brave enough to try and sneak in, once I was secured in my little bunker I dropped my bag on the coach I had dragged in and set myself down in front of my 5 screen computer display and checked the goings on of the cyber underworld.

About a half hour later, after checking to see if there were any interesting and high enough paying jobs out and finding none, I had dragged myself over to my bed and collapsed into it for some sleep, but heaven forbid I should be allowed some respite, soon after I collapsed into bed my alarms started going off and I was up instantly checking the monitors that showed all the access routes that could be used to get here and almost had to do a double take at what I saw, judging by what I could see of the fast moving IS that was heading straight for me, I was sure I had seen it before and something made me call out "deactivate all security protocols except sensors, voice recognition code 666 confirm" and after confirmation was made I dashed out to the train line that the IS was coming from and waited, unconsciously scratching at the burn I still hadn't checked properly.

When it showed up any doubt I had that I knew the IS was wiped away as I saw the streamline black colour and the connected legs like a pair of trousers, I grinned and walked up to it and patting it I said "looks like you chose the next time" before turning and walking a few steps away and waiting to see if it would follow, when it just sat there I sighed and rubbing the back of my head I strode back over and said to myself "of course it couldn't find it in itself to move just a bit further" and set to looping some more cables around it before dragging it back to the area reserved for IS parts, but for now would house this strange unit that I didn't think I would be handing over to anyone.

The next morning I went and made sure that all my security protocols were still intact and then checked on my new guest, then I checked to see if any requests had come in and I found none of interest, after seeing everything was in order I sat down and finally took the time to study the strange burn the unit had given me, it was definitely interesting I would say that, yet it had a sort of elegance to it, as I looked at it I started to wonder how a burn had so many curls to it, as I studied it I worked out that it seemed to be a sort of eye with curls of fire spreading out from it, it was more like a snakes eye than a humans, as in the iris and pupil were slitted.

My study of it was cut short when I heard my alarms going off, I rushed over to the screens and I started swearing when I saw men with the same sort of uniform from the complex that had housed the unit that was currently sitting in my workshop, I checked my defences and saw that they had all been dismantled which caused me to start swearing all over again, scanning through all the views I discovered that I was surrounded and quickly shut everything down calling out "emergency data transfer to wireless knife port, after transfer delete all data and shut down for indefinite amount of time, voice recognition code 666 confirm" and after confirmation was made, I pulled out my knife and checked the slowly filling green bar that glowed along the side of the handle and then dashed around memorising every scrap of information I had and then destroying it before I entered the workshop and looked around at all the scrap and parts I would have to leave behind.

When my gaze fell on the IS I got a crazy idea and started working it through my head as fast as I could before thinking the some of the only doubts I had _"but only females can pilot IS units, but it did follow me, but who's to say I can use it, I won't know unless I try"_ I managed to reason with myself until I was agreed and set about unbinding the unit and preparing for possible humiliation.

Climbing up into the IS I grabbed the head piece, a small black ring of metal, setting it on my head I was surprised that it fit and was even more so when I set myself up in it the way I was supposed to and it actually responded, the legs tightened and secured themselves, the arms slid up and hands popped out the ends, the back curled up and out of the waist, sliding over my shoulders and locking me down, the wings lifted and settled themselves on either side of me, as I took my first steps I couldn't hold in an exited cheer when it responded but I quickly remembered that I was doing this for a reason.

Without really thinking I reached around to pull my knife out and was startled when I found I could still reach it, the back of the suit had adjusted to leave room for it to be reached and the hands weren't too big to hold it, pulling it out I checked to see how the data transfer was doing and let out a sigh of relief when I saw that it was complete, thinking of something else I connected the knifes mainframe to the IS' mainframe and almost cheered again when I saw it connecting smoothly but held it in and ran through all my files, making sure I had everything before disconnecting it and sliding it back into its sheath.

Patching into my surveillance network I checked to see how close the men were and almost fainted from shock to see the lot of them hammering on my doors already, I shut the connection and set about learning about the unit, when I found its name I didn't even bother holding in my laughter, its name was Diablo, _"a more fitting name I couldn't find" _I thought smugly as I read through all it performance and statistics, when I was done I heard the doors falling and I called out over the speaker system I had "if you're looking for the IS unit, sorry but I don't think you will be getting it back any time soon, and if you looking for me, well, let's just say you're in for a big surprise" and shut it off laughing, before taking a deep breath and preparing myself for what I thought would be the most interesting time I had had in a while.

Keeping an eye on the surveillance, I watched them ransack my home, and started getting angry, I snapped when they sent a bunch of techies into my computer station and charged out into the middle of them shouting "I will put up with a lot of shit but I draw the line at messing with my computers you damn bastards!" and dropping my arms I grabbed the handles to the knives that I found on the sides of my legs and drew them, spun them a few times and set to work knocking the men aside and away from my lab, when I reached it I looked in and saw a team of 10 techies trying to puzzle their way through my mine field like security system and shouted at them "leave now or I will kill you where you stand" and I almost started laughing at how fast they ran out, and turning to look at the huge group of people standing in front of me I smiled and called out "you can do whatever you feel like to my place, but if any of you so much as steps a single foot in my lab then I will hunt you down and kill you myself, is this under stood?!" and after I got a couple of hesitant head nods I yelled as an afterthought "and that includes anyone you call for and are connected to in this whole thing"

I dropped my smile and said "I'm leaving now and you can't stop me so why don't you all just move out of my way" and I turned back and set about locking my lab shut with every code and defence I had and when I turned back I walked down the cleared path before me to the train tracks that I knew led to all over the city and mumbled to the suit "let's see what you got" before blasting down the tunnel and away from the only real home I ever knew.

As I darted through the tunnels I opened a comm channel to my home and listened to what they were talking about, I started grinding my teeth when they brought up what they should do about trying to get into my lab and when some of them started worrying about whether I would actually come back and kill them, whoever was in charge stated "you actually think he would hurt any of us? He ran away when he saw how many of us there were and was just trying to act tough" I almost turned around at this but held my course and kept heading for the IS academy, the only place I could learn how to use Diablo properly

_"Sure I can move him but I want to be able to use him to his full potential" _I reasoned with the part of me that was saying it was a bad idea and that they would never accept a thief _"former thief judging by the way things are going" _I reasoned _"seeing as my home is no longer inhabitable and if I want to get into the academy I will probably not get any real chances to even try and steal anything, not that I would need to steal anything if I was a student there" _as I had blanked out for my mental tirade I was out side and zooming along to the academy in no time, when I came into sight of the coast that lead to what I hoped to be my new home, at least until I mastered Diablo, I stopped and started looking around, I saw a large spiral pillar in the middle of the complex and smirked thinking _"if you want to get noticed than do something worth noticing"_ and so I pushed down on the ground and shot into the air, wobbling a bit at first but I got the hang of it and flew over to the island and up to the top of the spire like thing.

Balancing on the needle sharp point at the top on the tip of the suits equally pointy foot was a lot easier than I thought it would be and it wasn't long before people started to notice me and when they did they all started calling out for teachers or trying to get my attention, but I ignored them all and lowered myself until I was sitting on my heel and my other leg was crossed over the one I was balancing on and folded my hands into my lap and waited for someone to come up and get me, I was not going to come down just because they told me to, I would go down when someone came up to me to talk.

After a half hour someone I assumed was a teacher came up, she had green hair and her eyes were green and even her IS was green but the biggest thing to notice however was the large rifle she was holding, pointing it straight at my head she called out in a clear voice "who are you and what do you think you are doing up here?" and she seemed shocked when I called back, as it was obvious that I was a guy "I'm called Stratos, and as to why I am here" and at this I floated up and forward slightly so I could stretch my legs and said with a grin "I was hoping someone here would be willing to teach me how to use Diablo to his full potential"

I kept grinning but just as she was about to respond an alarm went off in my display, I had set an alarm in case they actually tried anything I didn't like back in my place and I called out to her "just hold that thought" and I quickly pulled up the surveillance feed and started swearing when I saw them setting a huge drill up in front of the door to my lab, stopping my swearing run I called out to her "if you want to know more about what the hell is going on then follow me and fast if you also want to save a few lives" and not waiting for her to react I blasted away back to the entrance to the tunnel I had come from and shot down it keeping an eye on them as they continued to set up the drill and shouted into the speaker system "I WARNED YOU YOU DUMB FUCKS! NOW YOU WILL PAY FOR SO MUCH AS THINKING OF TRYING TO BREAK INTO MY LAB! NO ONE TOUCHS MY COMPUTERS!"

I shut it off as I continued to race down the tunnel and as soon as I shot out into the terminal I grabbed the two men who had been sent to see if I was actually coming and slammed them together hard then threw them at the group who had gathered to see if I was coming as well, causing them to scatter and for the slow ones to get bowled over, stepping up to the ones who had dodged the first two I knocked them out of my way or shouted at them "who's in charge!?" and they either pointed toward my lab or tried running, the ones that pointed I knocked out fast and without pain, the ones that tried to run I severed legs, cut open arms or smashed into walls, hard, and all the while I made my way to the drill that was just starting to turn and inch its way to my lab.

I screamed a wordless scream when I saw the drill hit the door and without thinking I dove forward and grabbed the drills point and ignored the pain as I wrenched it away from the door and smashed it to smithereens, once it was scrap metal I turned to the assembled group, that was barely half what it had been and shouted at them "were the hell is the bastard that dared to call me a coward!? The bastard that dared to try and break into my lab!? Well? Where is he!?" I bellowed at them and they slowly started pointing to a man standing with his back straight and staring me in the eye as he stepped forward and I stared down at him and just tightened my grip on my knives until I thought that they would break but simply stated "I will give you one chance to leave. If you don't take it than I will not be held responsible for your life"

I waited still looking at him before calling out to the rest of them "that goes for the rest of you as well" and they slowly started leaving, one or two at first but they all left eventually, the leader stayed until the end and simply said "we won't forget this. You stole from us and we will take back our IS" and I simply grinned in his face and said "I didn't steal him, he came to me" before he turned and I checked to see if they had collected their wounded and called out when I saw the teacher on one screen standing outside the door to the main room where I was standing "if you heard any of that then you should know what's going on, or at least as much as I know anyway" and she stepped out as she said contemplatively "seeing you fight, if you could learn to control yourself better… but aside from that I don't think we have much to teach you, at least on the practical side, but I will certainly try and get you a place in our school" and I smiled at her saying simply "thank you" before following her back out and to the academy, after checking the door was still formidable enough to stand against anything besides a big ass drill and an all-out IS attack of course.

The next few days consisted mostly of me and the teacher, whose name I found out was Maya Yamada, I insisted on calling her Maya-sensei, trying to convince the other teachers and the head instructor, Chifuyu Orimura, to let me attend the academy, after testing my knowledge about IS and my combat ability they were almost ready to put me in the third year but I was adamant that if I was to attend I wanted the whole three years with no privileges, and when this was all settled I was ready to leave and get some sleep, and to do a background check on all my prospective class mates, for my first day of school.

I was stopped in my tracks when I heard Chifuyu shouting at me "were not done yet! We still have to organise your wardrobe because I won't have you walking around dressed like that" and she pointed at my dirty jeans, loose black singlet and probably my grey beanie as well but I just look down at myself and asked, honestly confused "what's wrong with this?" and she just said "follow me" and walked off and I hurried to follow, turning once to wave and call out to Maya sensei "thanks for the help" and she smiled waving back before turning to continue discussing what I could only guess was my placement in the academy but was forced to focus back on Chifuyu when she shouted at me to hurry up and I was forced to jog to keep up with her fast, stiff legged walk.

The next day I was walking along behind Chifuyu, tugging at the tight collar of the white dress jacket that I was supposed to wear, _"yea, _supposed_ to" _I thought grinning, stopping before I walked into Chifuyu's back, she back turned to me and slapped my hand from my collar before saying "we have placed you in the class with the only other male student here at the academy, we hope you will be more comfortable with him here seeing as you will have only female student companions besides him" and I smirked saying "I'm sure I can adjust to a room full of hormonal teenage girls" but dropped the smirk when she smacked me upside the head before turning calmly to the door to the class and opening it, causing an expectant hush to fall before she stated "I have a new student for you, please make him feel welcome" and there was an instant intake of breath the second she mentioned I was male and when she stepped to the side to let me through, I brushed against her and smirked seeing her shocked expression.

The second she had turned away from me I had unbuttoned the dress jacket and opened it, untucking my black singlet from the white dress pants that I had tucked it into so she wouldn't notice and to hold my grey beanie, as soon as it was untucked I reached around and grabbed the beanie before it fell and slipped it on, making sure to tuck the back of my singlet and jacket behind my knife sheath so I could reach it if need be, and so as I walked in a number of girls almost fainted by the looks of it and this only served to make my smirk bigger and cockier, glancing around my sight came to rest on the only other guy in the room, Ichika Orimura, he had messy black hair, much like mine, dark reddish brown eyes and an altered version of the uniform like I had, as in he had trousers instead of a mini skirt, I sank into my mind and pulled up all the data I had on him and his history, getting a general opinion of him from this.

As I woke up from my self-induced trance I realised that the teacher, who turned out to be none other than Maya-sensei, had been asking me something and I turned to her and asked sheepishly "sorry, what was that?" and she asked again "I was asking if you were alright, your eyes fogged over and I wasn't sure if you were okay" and I paused a second to wonder how she noticed my eyes fogging over when they were already a natural silvery grey.

Nodding my head I said "I'm fine sorry about that" and she sighed openly before saying "would you like to introduce yourself to the class" and I turned to the class room full of girls and one boy and said in a monotone "I'm called Stratos because I was so good at stealing IS parts and because I don't know what my crappy parents named me or even if they bothered naming me seeing as I have no knowledge of them at all. I'm here because I want to learn how to use Diablo to his full potential. I'm a partially reformed thief and I hope you all don't fear me straight away from what I have told you" then I tilted my head slightly and smiled saying "nice to meet you all" with a wave, and waited for a reaction.

I didn't wait long before I had to duck down to avoid getting hit again by Chifuyu and started laughing at all the stunned faces that greeted me when I straightened up, even the Ichika kid looked confused and no one said a word as I calmed myself down and turned to ask Maya-sensei "so where do I sit?" and instantly the whole class looked around them to see if there was an empty seat anywhere near them and three girls at the back whimpered when they saw that the only free seat was the one in the back row, second from the window side of class, Maya-sensei pointed to it hesitantly and just to have a bit more fun before I had to focus on class I wiped my knife out and spun it a few times before throwing it at the seat, making it narrowly miss the blonde girl that I would be sitting behind, and it thudded solidly into the chair as I turned and asked innocently "that one?" and she simply nodded as I sauntered down to the seat, grabbing the chair and my knife I yanked it out and slipped it back into its sheath and sat down, leaning back against the wall and resting my feet on the desk in front of me, folding my hands behind my head and closing my eyes, falling into the subconscious waking state I enter when I have to listen for any long amount of time, and waited for the first bell to signal lunch.

At first it was calm enough, until I started getting pelted with paper ball from different people in class, probably trying to see if I was awake, I ignored them because I was focusing with my ears more than anything else so I almost didn't even feel them, when Maya-sensei called out to me "Stratos, can you tell us what IS stands for?" it was obviously a test to see if I had been listening so I didn't even open my eyes, I simply stated calmly and clearly "everyone knows it stands for Infinite Stratos, if anyone here didn't know that then they don't belong here" and started grinning slightly when I heard the class gasp like they hadn't expected me to even be alive because of how still I had been, but it fell when I sank back into the deep trance I had myself in and I just sat and absorbed the class.

At irregular intervals Maya-sensei asked me something and I responded correctly each time, after a few more questions she stopped, resigned to the fact I was still paying attention without contributing, and continued teaching until the bell went and I was swamped by a group of girl who probably wanted to get to know me even after my little tirade at the start of the day.

I sat still and they waited for me to acknowledge them, without opening my eyes I asked them all in a monotone "what?" and a few meeped and ran off only to have other girls fill their place, at last one of them worked up the courage to speak, asking "we were wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us" and I smirked saying "it would be kind of hard to say anything other than yes" and some of them gasped while others gave relived sighs and waited for me to stand and come with them, but I stayed down for a few seconds to think the last part to my answer _"especially seeing as you have me surrounded and wouldn't let me go if I said anything but"_ and so I stood up and opened my eyes for the first time since the start of class and examined all the girls that had me backed against the wall, but moved to the side and trailed around me all the way to the cafeteria were we sat in a large circle as I fielded questions from them all.

Paying more attention to my lunch then them I didn't notice who asked what, but the questions were about me and my life, so for the most part I answered them, I was 15 like them, the only hobby I could think of was stealing, I had lived my whole life on the streets because my parents had abandoned me as a child, but some of the things I just ignored were questions like, did I have a girlfriend, had I ever kissed a girl before, things like this, but I got really into the conversation when one of them asked "at the start of class you said you were a partially reformed thief, what did you mean by partially reformed?" and I grinned and simply said while pulling out a wallet that was obviously not mine as it was far to feminine, "if she doesn't work it out before the end of the day then I'll tell you, but if she works it out you should be able to as well"

A few silent minutes later we turned to the door after hearing a rumbling from the hall and I grinned saying "looks like she worked it out" and I slipped the wallet back into my pocket and stood up, slipping past the girls to stand in the middle of the room, waiting for her to barge in.

As soon as the door slammed open I started laughing at the sight of Chifuyu with a large katana and a (only _almost_ in our opinion (me and Stratos')) scary mad look on her face while she was searching for me and as soon as she spotted me she stalked over, almost growling out "where is it!" and I just kept laughing as I pulled out her wallet and she swiped it from me as I struggled to get out "old habits die hard I guess" and I spun on my heel and ran, mostly to avoid getting cut in half by her wild swing, for an open window before jumping out and grabbing the edge, pulling myself up to say to her with a grin "catch me if you can" before I started climbing the outside of the building, when I made it to the roof I sat down and shook with laughter until Ichika and one of the other girls from class, Houki Shinonono, a girl with brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, deep blue eyes and an immaculate uniform, showed up and sat with me to talk, one of the first things I said to Houki was "you know, if you leave your face in a scowl like that it will stick like that" and had to dodge a very anger fuelled swipe from her.

We talked until it was time to head back to class and I made it a point of going in by the windows so as to avoid Chifuyu, ignoring the gasps and one shriek from the girls who had stayed in class to talk, I turned and asked "Maya-sensei, has Chifuyu come through here?" and again ignored the gasps from the class at how I addressed both teachers by their first names, but was slightly confused as to why she was stuttering and blushing but she managed to get out "S-S-Stratos, no s-she hasn't" and I sighed with relief as I made my way back to my seat and plopped down to wait for the start of class as I and the others had made it with at least 15 minutes to spare.

As I sat there the girl who sat in front of me stood up and walked over to Ichika asking "may I have a moment?" with an unmistakably British accent, and all he said back to the long haired blonde with light blue eyes and personalised uniform with the extended skirt was "sure, what's up?" she blinked before slamming her hands down on his desk and stating "what kind of response is that? You should be honoured I'm even talking with you so you should respond in the appropriate manner" she gave a well-practiced disdainful hair flip and waited for a response, but all he did was shrug and say "sorry but I don't even know who you are" this caused her to blink a few times and take time to process it before she gasped and asked "you don't know who I am? You don't know who-" but I popped up behind her and, having taken the time before hand to get all my data straightened out, instantly started my lecture

"Cecilia Alcott, heiress to the large Alcott family fortune, national representative candidate of England, highest score on entrance exam a second time in a row, would have been admitted last year, a year early because she was so good, but had to be pulled out at the last minute by her father because the family treasury had mysteriously emptied recently and they needed her at home… most probable reason for the lost funds is that a lost branch of the family turned up in the form of a wayward drunk and they needed every penny they had to rehabilitate him in secret so that he didn't disgrace their precious family name" and just grinned at the shocked faces I looked at, the grin grew when I looked around the room at the stunned faces of all the girls outside the class who had been staring at Ichika and I who heard my every word.

She was spared further humiliation when Ichika raised his hand and said "I have a question" and she recovered somewhat turning to him and saying imperially "it is the duty of the upper class to educate the lower class'. Go ahead" and he got a serious face before asking "what did he mean by national representative candidate?" causing me to collapse from how hard I was laughing and for Cecilia to start twitching before going on a tirade of her own "unbelievable! Are all Japanese males this idiotic" and I stopped laughing at this obvious ploy to discredit my earlier statements, she stepped back shaking her head and crossing her arms while continuing "it is common knowledge, common knowledge!" I managed to get up for this and said to him, still chuckling slightly "she's right, to an extent at least," I added in an under tone, glaring at her before turning back and saying "even I know this, and I lived on the streets" and he asked, slightly offended "so what is a national representative candidate?" and she got a glint in her eyes as she declared grandly to us both, even though I already knew

"An elite candidate that is chosen to represent her nation, can't you guess that from the term?" and I whispered into his ear while she was taking a breath "she means someone with a ton of money and a personal IS" and he turned confused again before turning back seeing as she had continued "yes! I am an elite candidate! Setting aside all else, it is a blessing to be a class mate of mine" and I whispered again "only in her view" causing him to chuckle slightly but she still noticed it and turned on him saying "could you understand that reality a little more? Both of you?" this last part she addressed to me with a withering look, but I simply smirked and said "I'm from the streets honey, remember? Looks don't frighten me, if you want to threaten someone, you need something like this" and I wiped out my knife and spun it into her face, stopping it a millimetre from her nose.

Ichika, who had turned away to work it through in his head, said distractedly "okay. Yes I guess I'm lucky" and she actually forgot the knife in her face in favour of turning on him and asking in a deadly voice "are you mocking me?" and he shrugged and said "I'm not trying to, if I did I'm sorry" and she just crossed her arms again and said "I'm amazed they let you into the academy" and looking back at me she said in a condescending tone "and I'm amazed that they let you bring that thing in with you" and I grinned saying while spinning my knife back into its sheath "they didn't know I had it, I had to smuggle it, my beanie and this in because Chifuyu didn't like the look of them" I said tugging at my singlet and turning on the girls that gasped again and said "what the hell is it with you people and gasping at me? Seriously!" and plodded back to my seat as class was starting soon but I didn't miss her parting comment "the only two males that can pilot IS' are a street urchin and an idiot, how sad"

I started planning my revenge for me as well as Ichika right away, but still listened to her offering to teach him anything he didn't understand and how she was gloating about how she was the only one to defeat the instructor, I popped back up behind her and said "maybe for the girls, but as far as I know their still busy rebuilding the training unit the instructor was using against me" and she gasped like the rest of the class, before I turned and shut them up with a glare, turning back to her as she asked "you beat the instructor too?" and was even more surprised when Ichika said "I beat her as well" and she gasped again but I beat the class to their gasp with my glare and they remained silent as I turned back while Ichika explained "as I remember it she flew at me, I moved out of the way, she flew into the wall and didn't move"

_"That doesn't really count as him doing anything does it?" _I thought as Cecilia slammed her hands down again and looking between us stated "I was told that I was the only one to beat the instructor" and Ichika said "like Stratos said, maybe for the girls but…" and he left it hanging with a shrug and she said icily "we'll be talking about this later" and walked back to her seat with me right behind her, the rest of the day went by relatively fast.

On the way to the dorms I was walking and talking to Ichika, making a good friend, when Cecilia came up to us but I cut her off before she could even start, saying "I don't plan on telling you a thing about before, not until I feel good and ready, and you can go to hell for all I care, and about that comment you made as I left the first time, I will get you back for that" and continued walking past her and Ichika who had both frozen at my statements, as I got to the dorms I looked for the room I was to be staying in, when I found it I sat down on the bed that had been left alone, the other bad had an entire canopy arrangement set up on top of it along with what looked like silk bed covers, as I looked at it I got an uneasy feeling that was confirmed when the door opened and Cecilia walked in and froze when she saw me, I stood up and proceeded to use every foul word I knew to try and vent my frustration at the fact that I was going to have to share a room with a girl that hated me, and I wasn't too fond of her either.

After I was done swearing at every deity I could think of, I looked at her and found she was more or less doing the same thing, only with not so vibrant language and sank onto her bed as I had done and just looked at the floor blankly along with me, snapping out of her trance she stood up and started making a schedule for when we were to use the bath room and such, I made no objections but did butt in when she got to toilet breaks "wait, these rooms don't have toilets in them tho" and she smirked and said "being me has its advantages" which I took to mean she had gotten her father to bribe the school into getting her a room with her own toilet, after all this was set up I stretched and said "may as well get some sleep now" and I shrugged off the dress jacket and slipped my singlet over my head draping them both over the banister at the head of my bed but stopped when Cecilia shrieked and hid on the other side of her bed, saying with her back to me "have you no shame!? Undressing in front of a girl like that!"

I just said calmly "I don't really consider you a girl seeing as I have no reason to like you. Besides, why do you care so much anyway? I thought you hated me as well?" and climbed into bed as she turned back with a distinctive blush over her face and I sat there with a smirk and raised one eyebrow as I stared pointedly at her cheeks, when she worked it out she clapped her hands over her face as it started to redden more and turned away mumbling something about having a shower as she picked up some clothes and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her, I just chuckled and lay down, taking deep breaths I tried to sleep but ended up laying there for the hour that it took her to have her shower and come out and tuck herself into bed.

After a short pause she called softly to me in a hesitant voice "if you don't want to answer than you don't have to, but would you please tell me how you knew all that stuff?" and she gained a bit of her normal bravado saying "In particular how you managed to steal my big introduction" but lost it when she added "minus the drunken family member part" and I gave a sleepy smile as I replied through a yawn "your general mannerisms matched your profile that has been made by a number of admirers over the internet, your accent was from a part of England that the Alcott's effectively own… and I saw a picture of you on the news a few days ago when you made the headlines about getting the highest score for the entrance exam a second time" and I yawned again before turning to look at her sleepily and said with a small smirk "don't think I'm being nice to you or anything, I still plan on getting you back for that street urchin remark, I much prefer being called a thief or a criminal, but never an urchin, that's just an insult" before looking back up at the roof, holding my hand up to see the burning eye again, tracing the curls with my eyes before letting my hand drop and falling calmly asleep.

When I woke I stood up and grabbed my singlet and jacket, putting them on I said over my shoulder to the waking Cecilia "I'll head out so you can get changed" and left for the cafeteria for some breakfast, when I got there I searched for a seat that wasn't next to one of the girls trying to get me to sit with them and found Ichika sitting with Houki and three other girls, one of them in a strange cat costume, sitting down across from them I nodded a greeting, addressing them by name causing Houki to lean forward and try to slap me, but I saw it coming and leant back so she missed and just asked "what was that for?" and she said "you hardly know us, what makes you think you can address us by our first names?" and I shrugged saying "I don't like formalities or titles, they give people misguided senses of superiority or subjectiveness"

Ichika asked "so why do you call Yamada-sensei, Maya-sensei?" and I said with another shrug "she vouched for me to get into the academy and help me argue my point across to the other teachers, including Chifuyu" this last part making him look slightly nervous as he said "you should probably not call her that here" and I asked "why?" and he pointed over my shoulder as I ducked out of my seat to the side to avoid the smack I would have gotten to the back of the head from Chifuyu, who had popped up out of thin air as far as I could tell, growling at me "call me Orimura-sensei when here, or anywhere for that matter" and she stalked off calling as she went "eat faster, class starts in 5 minutes" causing the whole cafeteria to start eating faster and causing me to just say as I looked around at all the suck ups "wow, you people are really sad" but sat down anyway and finished my food as fast as I could along with the rest of them.

When we were all in class and sitting Chifuyu stepped up out font and called out "we will now be electing the class representative for the inter class tournament being held in 2 weeks, not only this but they will act as the class rep for the year, you may elect yourself or someone else" and almost instantly girls were jumping up nominating Ichika, Chifuyu said "does anyone else want to try out? If not he will win by default" and he stood up saying "but I don't even want to-" but was cut over by Cecilia standing and saying "I cannot accept this! I will not have a male represent us in any way, especially one so uneducated! It's bad enough that I have to stay in an undeveloped country but-"

At this I cut in saying "England may have some things that Japan doesn't but that doesn't mean that Japan is undeveloped! Where else in the world could you find a knife with an entire computer mainframe set up in the handle?" and I pulled out me knife, tapped a couple of different places on the handle and the end slid open to allow a mini projector to emerge and a large three screen holographic display to appear, after a few seconds of rapid one handed typing I called out "just to prove how good these things are in the right hands, I just hacked into the schools data base, who wants to know what the teachers think of them?" and half the class was up and trying to read the codded information on the screen, I grinned saying "I've already broken the code but will not show you without teacher permission" and shut the screens down, chuckling at the down faced looks and glares of anger I was getting.

After my little stunt, Cecilia said "so? We are still more advanced than Japan" and Ichika turned to her and said "England doesn't have much to brag about as far as I know" and I grinned at him as he continued with a smirk "how many years running have you won the world's most disgusting food championship?" and she gasped trying to defend herself saying "we have plenty of delicious food! You dare insult my nation?" and I answered her this time saying "no, he's just backing me up while _I_ insult your nation" and kept on grinning as she stared at me with pure hatred burning in her eyes before she pointed at Ichika shouting "I challenge you to a dual!" and when she said this I perked up and said "if there's going to be a fight, then I want in" but Chifuyu said "unless you want to run in the election as well I cannot allow that" and I slumped not really wanting to go through any of that, but already making a plan as I said in a fake defeated tone "fine I won't join, I don't want to go through any extra crap" and sat back saying to Ichika "good luck dude" with a thumbs up and a grin, he nodded to me before turning to Cecilia and saying "you're on!" and it was settled, in 1 week they would fight for the right to represent our class in the tournament and to prove which gender was better with an IS, the rest of the day flew by.

XXX

A/N:hope you liked it (even if it was mostly ripped off) will wait for maybe a month before posting another one, depending on reports of course (and if my internet will let me, it is really soradic and iritating) ...so nothing much more to say here...

farewell dear readers, tornado surfer signing off


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: right well here we are for the second installment of Street Wise In A School. i thank all those that bothered to read/report/etc... and hope i can continue to hold your interest. going over what i have so far i realise i'm not actually that good at writing fight scenes, so the next couple of installments will be a bit shorter then the first two because they focus more on fight scenes. but for now ENJOY TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES WHEN THE ONLY THING TO ENJOY HAPPENS TO NOT BE OWNED BY ME!

key:

"talking"

_"thinking"_

(my comments)

**"IS talking"**

**_"IS thinking"_**

"other talking"

_"other thinking"_

time to read on dear readers

XXX

Ep.2: personal units

The next day in class, news of the impending fight was still rushing around, after a few weak try's by Maya-sensei to get the class to shut up I stood and call out over all of them "QUIET!" and they all instantly shut up, looking up to Maya-sensei I said "all yours" and she stuttered a thanks before saying in a much stronger voice "Orimura-sensei has something to say" and Chifuyu stepped forward and said to Ichika "about your IS, it will take some time for it to be fully operational" and he blinked in obvious confusion so she continued "there are no unassigned units so we have ordered one just for you" and the class immediately started whispering amongst themselves, "wow, a personal IS" "a personal IS for a freshmen?" and I asked no one in particular "what so impressive about a personal IS? I have one"

The whole class shut up and turned to look at me as I realized something and called up to the teachers "hey Chifuyu, when do I get Diablo back any way? You said after he was tested I could use him again" and jumped straight out of my chair into the air to avoid her fist that sailed into the wall behind me, I landed and sat right back down as she walked back up to the front like nothing had happened but turned to me and said "you can go to hanger 6 after school and see it, we will still need to run some more tests to try and work out why it responded to you" and I shrugged and said "as long as I can see him, fine by me" and the class went back to gossiping, one of them turned to me and asked "how did you get a personal IS?" and I shrugged again and explained "I was trying to steal him, failed, went home, he followed me, some people came and tried to take him back, I used him to get away" and shrugged again before leaning back and dropping out of the class into my mind.

The class kept speculating and I heard them murmuring to each other "I thought that only the government could assign you a personal IS?"

"Does that mean Stratos tried to steal from a government building?"

"I don't know, but I want a personal IS, their supposed to be better than normal IS units by a huge margin" and on, but stopped after a few more moments and tuned back in to Ichika and Chifuyu, Ichika asked "is having a personal unit that good?" but no one got the chance to answer him when Cecilia dashed out in front of him with crossed arms and a haughty grin on her face, I had cracked an eye open when I heard her move, and she said "I'm glad for the news" and pointed at him saying "this tournament, it is obvious who will win" then folded her arms again saying "it would be unfair if I was using my personal unit and you only had a training unit"

All she got was Ichika asking "you have a personal IS?" and she got a triumphant glint in her eye as she said "you didn't know? Allow me to educate you, commoner" she posed by placing her hands on her hips before saying "I am Cecilia Alcott, representative candidate of England, therefore I already have a personal unit, something only the elite of the elite can have, there are-" and here I cut her off, knowing where she was headed I finished for her "-only 467 IS in the whole world, most pilots have to use mass production units because there are so few. The main reason personal units are so good is because they are made specifically for the person, that way the person can use them more effectively, they are special because there are so few IS in the world"

As I looked back up at them I saw Cecilia gaping at me, Ichika looked back at me asking "only 467?" and I started sauntering up to the front as I recited "the CORE technology, which is key for an IS to work, hasn't been disclosed to any of the major manufacturers yet so they can't make any more without the help of the one who created IS, Prof. Tabane Shinonono" he glanced past me to Houki and mumbled "that's Houki's older sister" and I turned to look at her as well, before turning back and continuing "no one has any clue how to make an IS CORE, it's a complete mystery so without Prof. Tabane's help, no one can make any more IS's. Strangely enough, she only wanted to make a specific number of COREs, the companies that make IS's have COREs allocated to them and have to make do with what they are given to make improvements, research, and anything else related to IS"

We all looked up to the front when Chifuyu broke in saying "fundamentally speaking, only those that work for their respective government or for a major company may have access to personal IS's, but seeing as you are the only known male to be able to pilot an IS, one will be made for data collection" but I heard something in what she had said and stated it when I realised what she meant "you haven't told anyone outside the academy about me have you" and the class started talking again until Chifuyu spoke over them "no we have not told anyone outside the academy that you are here, but it is because we wanted to try and understand how you were able to use an IS, much like Orimura, only he found out in a much more public setting, you turned up out of the blue on top of the spire out the front of the academy" and I had to agree with her there.

After a few seconds of us standing there, one of the other students raised her hand and asked "is Shinonono-san related to Prof. Shinonono?" and I looked back at her and simply stated "obviously" and Chifuyu said in a more formal manner "yes, Shinonono is her younger sister" and the class gave a collective "EEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!?" as they turned on Houki asking questions "really?"

"She's your older sister?"

"Isn't Prof. Shinonono missing, and whole nations are looking for her?"

"Do you know where she is?" but I stepped over to her side and stated firmly "as far as I know she is taking a break from all the companies harassing her to make more COREs and I for one think she has every right. I doubt Houki would know where Prof. Tabane would be seeing as she has had no contact with her sister in over a few years, and do you all really need to ask if she is related? Their names are the same and I don't think you would be likely to find many families with the name 'Shinonono'!" I turned to look at her out of the corner of my eye and gave a small smile as I winked good naturedly at her shocked look, but turned back with a bored look on my face and started back for my seat in the creepy quiet the class had fallen into, after a few minutes Chifuyu said quietly "Yamada-sensei, the class please" before turning and walking to the corner of the room as Maya-sensei started the class.

"IS covers the pilots body with an energy shield, each IS has something similar to a conscious of its own. Communication occurs between an IS and its pilot, the more time one spends in an IS, the more the IS learns how one thinks" as she finished this bit Ichika mumbled loud enough for me to hear with my sensitive ears, "I don't get any of this" but no one else responded so I guess they couldn't hear him, Maya-sensei continued "do not consider IS as a tool, but as a partner" and at this I thought _"got that covered all ready"_ as she called out "any questions so far?" and someone must have held there hand up because I heard them call out "question" and I started chuckling to myself when I heard the question, "when you say partner, do you mean like boyfriend-girlfriend?"

Opening my eyes a crack I saw Maya-sensei take a step back and stutter "I-I-I'm not s-s-sure… I don't have the experience to answer that…" and she started blushing as she held her face and said "I do wonder sometimes…" and I struggled to hold my laughter in as it continued like this, but let it out when the rest of the class started laughing as someone called up to the still blushing teacher "your so cute sensei" and I was sure that Ichika was thinking something along the lines of _"are all girls-only schools like this?" _from what I gathered from his data and the small time I had spent talking to him.

Later on in a break I followed Chifuyu until I was sure we would be alone and stepped up to her asking "why did you put me in a room with Cecilia?" she didn't even look around at me as she said "we had little time to work out what room to put you in, I agree it would have been better to put you in a room with Orimura, but it didn't work out that way", we stood there for a while before I asked "could you organise a room change for me then?" and she turned with a sly grin on her face as she said "not unless you want to share a room with one of the girls who have been hounding you since you left the class up until a few minutes ago when we lost them" and I stood there, frozen, as I realised that she had done it on purpose, probably to get back for stealing her wallet, I grinned as I simply said "well played, but this isn't over" before walking back to class.

When I got back to class the first thing I heard was Houki yelling "let me go!" before a thud and Ichika saying "ow…" as I walked in, I walked over to him and helped him up as he nodded his thanks before turning back to her and saying "you've gotten better" and she just stared back with that grumpy look on her face and said "maybe you've just gotten weaker" and she looked away as she said "that was just a simple trick you learn from practicing with a sword" and I grinned as the three girls from the other day started sideling out the room calling out to Ichika "on second thought I think we'll pass" before they ran full pelt out the room.

I turned to look at Ichika with a raised eyebrow and he explained "I was asking if they wanted to come with me and Houki for lunch, Houki was being stubborn and I tried to get her to come, she knocked me over and then you showed up" and he turned to look at Houki with a sigh as she looked back at him and asked "what? You have something to say?" and all he got out was "Houki-" before she stopped him to say "I told you not to call me by my first name"

I asked, confused "I thought that was me?" she turned on me saying "it goes for both of you" before Ichika grabbed her hand saying "we're going for lunch" and started pulling her along as she said "leave me alone already" but he just said as I grabbed her other hand to help pull her along, "just come with us" she started walking along behind us, glancing at us holding her hands, I let go when she looked up at me and I gave another small wink to say _"I know what you're thinking, and you should go for it"_ before turning away when she blushed and continued walking along besides Ichika.

When we got to the cafeteria, I glanced at Houki and gave her a subtle nod when she gestured for me to go and I walked off to get my food and sat in one of the corner booths, away from everyone else but I had a perfect seat to watch the room, and I did watch Houki continue that gruff routine as they talked, but she started to thaw when she was cut off by the canteen lady, and they both started walking over to me and since she was ahead of him I had time to say in a whisper "you won't get much of a result if you keep acting so mad with him" and she blushed but didn't say a word as she sat down and started eating as we were joined by Ichika and a few other girls, who he chatted too good naturedly, but from the look Houki was giving him, you would have thought he had just promised to marry all of them, I grinned as she glanced at me and started blushing when she realised that I was reading her again.

Near the end of lunch the girls dispersed and Ichika asked Houki "hey Houki?" and she must have been paying attention to my comment because she let it slide and only asked sternly "what?" so he asked "could you teach me about IS? At this rate I feel like I will lose to Cecilia without being able to put up any fight at all" she simply stated calmly "it's your own fault for being provoked like that" and he bowed his head to her and said "but please, I beg you" and I saw the glint in her eyes when he said that but before she could respond, another girl walked up and asked Ichika "are you the boy their all talking about? I heard that you're going to fight a national representative candidate, but you're a total beginner right?" and after he nodded she leant in and asked "would you like me to teach you about IS?" and as soon as she was finished Houki stated "thank you for the offer but I am teaching him"

Ichika looked over to her in shock as the other girl said "you're a freshmen too right? I'm a senior" she said tugging at the red ribbon she wore, different to the blue one Houki wore, and said "I'm sure I'll be a better teacher than you" I came to Ichika's rescue so as to avoid an all-out cat fight over him by stating "I'll teach him" and the way I said it left no room for argument, even the senior seemed to realise that I was in command here and nodded saying "very well" and walked stiffly off as Ichika kept looking back and forth between me, Houki, and the girl as I shot Houki a look that said _"I'm not going to save you every time you fail to keep his attention, after all this whole school is full of other girls that want him just like you do"_ but I kept myself calm and simply ate my food quietly as Ichika gave up trying to work out what had happened.

Instead he asked me "so you'll teach me?" and I said "the theory side of things, yes" and as if taking a queue Houki said "I'll be teaching you the rest" and went back to eating while Ichika tried puzzling his way through the events that had led to this, and giving up just as easily as before, at the end of school I went with Houki and Ichika to the kendo training room and Houki proceeded to knock Ichika flat on the floor again and again, until she stopped and stated "what is going on?" and Ichika looked up at her and panted out "what do you mean?" and she continued angrily "you've become far weaker! What club did you join in middle school?" and he said in an annoyed tone "'going straight home' club, I never missed a day in three years" and she stated firmly "I'm going to retrain you!" and he flinched at the prospect of more beatings but she continued "this is more than worrying about IS, every day after school for three hours I will train you!"

He protested saying "but I need to learn about IS as well" and she overrode him stating "I said your problem is beyond IS" and I turned to the small group of students that had gathered to watch him, one asked "is Orimura-kun actually that weak?" another asked "can he really move an IS?" and he simply sagged from the strain of all the insults, after training I followed Houki, intent on talking with her, into the change rooms and waited for her on the other side of the row of lockers she was changing behind, after a while she started talking to herself, "was I too hard on him?" and a pause before she said "no! That was just right. He clearly hasn't held a sword in over a year; otherwise he wouldn't lose to me like that. Six years… he's changed so much in the six years we've been apart. So much…" and she seemed to drift off at this, so I walked around the lockers and saw her standing there, in only a light green slip, staring into space, _"probably remembering something"_ I thought as I walked closer and leaned against the lockers, studying her while I waited for her to come back to the present.

I knew she had come back when she lifted the hand he had held earlier today and looked at it, blushing slightly, before snapping out of it and shaking her head, saying "in any case, starting tomorrow, he will be training after school every day, then I can spend those hours with him" mumbling the last part so I could barely hear it as she started blushing slightly more, until I made my presence known when I said "I couldn't agree more" and laughed at the shriek she let loose when she saw me leaning there and realised that she was only in a slip, so I stumbled back down the aisle, holding my sides with laughter, and waited on the other side for her to finish getting changed, and fell into step beside her, saying "for the record, you could cut him a bit of slack, at least until he can do better than now, then let him have every ounce of pent up frustration you have" and grinned when I noticed her blush, I continued "ahhh…there's nothing like beating up the person you care about when their as blind to your feelings as a bat in the sun" and she just kept on walking with that ever growing reddening of her face until we reached the dorms and I said "see ya in the morning" heading for my room.

The week passed in much the same pattern, wake up, have breakfast, go to class, eat lunch with friends, go back to class, watch Houki beat Ichika up after school as she seemed to think my advice was only good in how I had agreed with her about beating him up, and head back to the dorm, then sneak out in the middle of the night and work on secret project, repeat, the day of the fight we headed to one of the stadiums and waited for everything to be ready in one of the launch rooms, I was leaning against the wall and was trying not to yawn too openly while Ichika was talking to Houki, "hey Houki?" and she simply gave a curt "what?" but he still asked "you were supposed to teach me about IS right?" and she looked over to me and said "he was supposed to teach you the theory" I shrugged and said "you took up all his time, it's hardly my fault I couldn't teach him anything" and Houki took over again saying "besides I had to teach you to fight and kendo was the only way to do it seeing as the IS made for you wasn't ready yet" after a few tense minutes a voice called out over the intercom from the observation room above us, "Orimura-kun! Orimura-kun!" and I recognised Maya-sensei's voice as she continued "you IS is ready" and as she said this, a portion of the wall opened and out came Ichika's personal unit.

It was a lot like Diablo but instead of black with places for the knives to rest, it was more an off white and no place to hold a weapon, as we studied it Chifuyu called out to us "we only have a short amount of time so get ready Orimura, as soon as possible" and he nodded, walking off to the change rooms, I took the time to study the IS closer, I was contemplating logging into the mainframe when we heard Chifuyu calling out in an annoyed tone "if you so much as think about doing anything to that IS I will personally kick you out of the academy" and I had a feeling she meant literally kick me out so I hopped off from my perch on one of the wings and called up to her, as I could see her through the tinted glass "I was only looking, honest" and she just shook her head at me and Ichika took this moment to walk in in the tight fitting uniform the others wore when piloting an IS, as we looked up at it Maya-sensei called down to us "this is the IS that was made for you Orimura-kun, it's called Byakushiki"

He climbed up into it as I called up to him "lean back like it's a chair, the back will come up by itself" and he leant back like I suggested and the unit responded like it had to me, the arms slid up as the hands shot out, the legs tightened, the back rolled out and the wings settled on either side of him, I grinned when he took a few steps onto the launch runner that would shoot him straight out into the arena, as he stood there waiting he started looking through all the statistics, I was done with the screens that were there and when I looked at where he was up to, I sweat dropped when I saw he was only a quarter of the way through, by the time he was half way through Maya-sensei started over running his screens with data about Cecilia's IS.

She started speaking "Cecilia's IS is called Blue Tears, it is primarily a long range fighter so be careful, IS come with a function called absolute defence, it is designed to at the very least save the pilots life…no matter what. When it is in effect, shield energy is used, you understand right?" and he nodded as Chifuyu asked "are you feeling sick at all?" he stated confidently "I can do this" I could have sworn she smiled, but couldn't tell for sure, but Ichika said to Houki "hey, Houki" she asked with a feint stutter "wh-what?" he grinned saying "I'm off" she paused for a second to before saying "right, go win this!" and he nodded just as Chifuyu called out "ready Orimura?" he called out "let's go" and he shot out into the arena, spiralled a few times before stabilizing a few hundred feet away from Cecilia.

As soon as he was away I turned and headed out with a purposeful stride that Houki noticed as she came up behind me and asked "aren't you going to watch?" and I grinned as I turned to look at her out of the corner of my eye, not slowing down at all "I plan on doing more than that" and didn't say another thing, as she obviously wanted to make sure I didn't do anything against the rules she followed me to one of the other launch rooms and stopped at the entrance as I strode up to the large covered object in the middle of the room, turning to her I bowed and said in a grand tone "may I introduce you to…" and swept the cover off too reveal the black IS that I had spent the whole week getting here and prepped "…Diablo!"

I turned from her to look at the unit, patting it as I said "ready for some fun buddy?" and of course he didn't respond, but I still talked to him, it just felt right, and set about preparing him for his first fight, after I was sure he was ready I pulled my knife out and opened the screens, opening the video feeds I had set up beforehand I looked at the three different screens, one had the arenas camera view of the fight, one had Cecilia's view, and the other had Ichika's view and I heard a gasp behind me from Houki, who I had forgotten was there, she stepped back and said "how did you get into Ichika's and Cecilia's IS servers?" and I grinned as I said "I did more than look earlier with Byakushiki, and I share a room with Cecilia so it was a simple matter to get the access codes from her, did you know she talks in her sleep?" and turned back to the screens finishing with "and I already showed I can break into the schools mainframe" before shutting her out and focusing on the fight, as the holographic counter had started, counting down…3…2…1… and the fight was on.

As soon as the fight started a warning went off on Ichika's screen, warning him that Cecilia was going into firing mode, which matched the notice on her screen that said the same thing, she shouted "I bid you fare well!" and levelled her large rifle at him, and I had time to notice how similar to the one Maya-sensei has before she started firing, the first one was a direct hit, he had simply stayed there and crossed his arms to protect his head, I turned slightly when I heard a gasp beside me and saw Houki had settled herself beside me and was watching the screens with a feverish intensity, he just managed to flip so he landed on the ground on his feet and stumbled a bit more, a warning showing up on his screen saying that his shoulder armour was hit and the appropriate amount of shield energy was taken off, he kept darting around as Cecilia kept up a relentless barrage of fire at him.

As he dodged we heard him muttering to himself "damn it! Byakushiki's not fast enough to do this forever" as he kept getting clipped by her shots, not all but some, and she was calling out in a joyful voice "that's it! Dance! Dance to the waltz played by Cecilia Alcott and Blue Tears" and I chuckled a bit at this but stopped when Houki slapped me upside the head without turning form the screens and I calmed down to continue watching. Ichika kept up a running commentary "crap! She's chipping my shield energy away" as he flew around, trying to protect himself as best he could, then Byakushiki opened a window to show his weapons, all that was in there was a sword and he complained to himself "that's it? I guess it's better than nothing" and he held his hand out and a large sword materialised in it, he swung it a few times and charged at her as she called out "pitting a sword against a long range gunner? How foolish!" and she kept up her barrage of shots keeping him at a distance.

As he kept spinning around the arena his shield energy was slowly falling, hit by hit, looking at the arena view, the few students that had showed up to watch were cheering for him, splitting it with a view of the observation room that Chifuyu and Maya-sensei were watching from and saw the blank look on Chifuyu's face and the worried look on Maya-sensei's, I glanced at Houki, still leaning over my shoulder to see the screens and I noticed how worried she was simply by looking at her face, and knew that she was barely breathing from the stress of the situation, turning back to the fight I saw Cecilia was taking a break from blasting Ichika to say "you're the first to last this long in your first fight against Blue Tears, you have my congratulations"

He replied "thanks" while taking deep breathes and I figured he was tired as all hell, but wasn't about to let her know that, but she had other ideas as she raised her rifle again and called out "but I think I'll be ending this now!" and parts on her wings detached themselves and flew over towards Ichika and started blasting at him at the same time, knocking him all over the place and they flew back to her and reattached to her wings pieces as she called "your left leg is mine!" and fired a precise shot at his left leg, he flew back a ways and slashed the shot before it hit him and he muttered out loud "let's see if this works" and flew down to the ground and skated over the surface, dodging the shots, dashing around, getting ever closer to her and I heard her gasp slightly at his newfound determination, he was still losing shield energy but he wasn't about to be stopped as he charge at her, Houki gasped out "Ichika!" and I stiffened slightly but stayed silent.

He got close to her and swung for her neck but she spun back from him calling as she flew back "your insane, but it's all for nothing" and she deployed the four extra pieces again, as they opened fire he spun his way around the shots and kept heading straight for her, as one got to close to him he sliced it clean in half, yet managed to continue spiralling his way around, avoiding the shots and Cecilia gasped as he called out to her "I get it!" and he made another attempt at hitting her but she darted back and the three remaining drones drew him back as he continued "these devices move when you command them, but only when you command them. You can't attack while you have them out because you need to focus on controlling them" and he darted at one and sliced it like the last, he stopped as he finished and the last two secured themselves back onto her wings as he called out "isn't that right?" and as I watched him, I noticed he was clenching and unclenching his hand, lifting my head slightly I delved into my mind and pulled up his data to see if this meant anything and came out almost immediately after seeing it was in fact a bad sign.

Checking on the observation room, Maya-sensei was gasping at Ichika's understanding of Cecilia's IS capabilities and was saying "Orimura-kun is amazing…I can't believe this is only his second time activating an IS" but Chifuyu shook her head and said "the idiot is being too cocky" and Maya-sensei turned to look at her and asked "how can you tell?" and she gave a faint smirk as she said "he's been clenching and unclenching his left hand right? Whenever he does that, he tends to screw up on a normally simple problem" and Maya-sensei gasped again before asking "familial observation huh?" and I smirked and muttered "or she can simply read people to a degree" and received another slap from Houki for interrupting and quieted down, planning a few tricks I could pull on her for this, but focused back onto the arena.

He was calling out "just two more to take down" and was flipping around the remaining two drones, he paused for a split second and I knew he was freezing and thinking the way I would have done in his place, I came to a conclusion that she would send them at his weak side first and so he would react to that side first and knock it out, then dart to the other one and charge at her, and that is exactly what he did, as he charged at her he stated out loud "it's my game at close range!" and I glanced at her view and saw a pop up letting her know something was operational, and I worked it out just as she called out "you fell for it" and he slowed at this as she said in a smug voice "I have more than those four!" and two cannons swung up to point at him from her legs and I smirked saying "very well played" and Houki didn't even bother hitting me this time as she was too busy staring at the cannons in disbelief, he had time to call out "crap!" before she fired off a couple of rockets at him, he flew all over the arena trying to avoid them but they followed him all over, he swooped to a stop and swung his arms up as the two missiles hit him straight on.

I winced when Houki shouted in my ear "Ichika!" and I saw Maya-sensei gasping as well, yet Chifuyu was still as stony faced as ever, until she gave a faint smirk and said "the unit saved your life you fool" and looking back to Ichika's view, I saw he was still active and when the smoke cleared we saw that Byakushiki was different, (add own description. you should know what it looks like and so I can't be bothered to describe him), checking all reactions, Cecilia was gasping, I was letting out a breath I hadn't known I was holding, and Houki was sighing along with me, looking to Ichika's view it showed Byakushiki was connecting and Ichika seemed really confused, glancing at Cecilia I heard her gasping "was that…first shift?" and called out to him "don't tell me you were fighting on the default setting?"

He called back "I don't understand exactly, but it looks like Byakushiki is mine and mine alone from now on" and then a new weapon icon appeared and he asked "yukihira 2?" and delving into my mind I found the data just as he said it to himself "yukihira's the weapon Chifuyu-nee used, right?" and he gave a huge grin as he said "I have the best sister in the world" before the blade he was holding opened and an energy one appeared in between the halves, he said in a more serious tone "but I have to stop having her protect me all the time. From now on I will protect my family as well" and Cecilia asked, confused "what are you talking about?" but all he said was "to begin with, I will protect Chifuyu-nee's name. She won't look as cool if her brothers a loser" and I grinned at this as I looked to see her reaction, she gave the ghost of a smile as Cecilia yelled at him "you annoying commoner!" and let loose a huge barrage of rockets at him and he called "I see them" as he spun his way around them, knocking them away so they blew up of to his sides, and he even cut a couple in half, before he charged straight at her shouting "I can do this!" and all she did was gasp as he shot up to meet her but his shield energy suddenly plummeted down to zero and he stopped a few feet in front of her, frozen, and an announcer call out "match over. Winner: Cecilia Alcott" I set about typing as fast as I could before they got pulled back into their launch areas and I couldn't hold them any longer.

While everyone was puzzling their way through what had happened I was breaking through all the security until I was in control of the stadium and for a brief amount of time there IS units, I had them float away from each other and they struggled and so I said into their com systems "please don't struggle, it just tires you out and then this would be pointless" and shut it down opening one to the observation room and saying with a grin "sorry about this but I just had to get in on the fight, nothing personal you realise" and cut it before standing and shrugging my jacket off, draping it over one of the pieces of machinery and said to a very confused Houki "you can head back to the other launch deck and watch from there" before climbing up into Diablo and once I was strapped in I launched out into the air, floating up next to the others and grinning like a fool at how they started shouting at me as soon as I was in view, I just ignored them and pulled my knife out again and sent Ichika over to the other end and out of range so I could fight without any distractions and turned to Cecilia calling out "I told you I would get my revenge" and let her go, recharging her IS to full power, even getting her drones back, as I set another counter going…3…2…1… and the fight was on.

As soon as the counter was done I charged at her wiping my knives out and barely having to tilt to the sides to avoid her shots, as I got in close I started hacking away at her, tacking away chunks of her shield energy as I had a display for her units essentials and she kept trying to back away from me but I stayed in close, were I had the advantage, she managed to get me back after swinging her rifle at me like a club and I had to move to avoid getting clocked right in the head, as soon as I was back I called "well well well, who's the uncivilized one now? Resorting to a club, that's just sad" before I had to focus on her movements more, to tell were the next shot would be aimed, eventually she sent out the drones and taking a chance I shot straight at her, ignoring the hits I was taking from them and simply flew at her, swinging at her again and again until she had the drones return and pointed the cannons at me.

Point blank I decided it would be beneficial to move and darted away as soon as I could, I flew around and around, watching the patterns in the eight or so missiles movements and stopped suddenly before flying straight at them slipping through the gaps between them and flew at her again, slipping behind her I grabbed her arms and held her in front of me like a shield, and waited for the missiles to come back around and took the time to say, "I would have thought you would put up more of a fight. I'm disappointed" and let her go and dropped straight down to the ground when the missiles hit her and knocked the last of her shield energy away, as she fell I stretched my arms out and caught her before she hit the ground and held her a few moments, bridal style, before setting her on her feet and pulling my knife out, I tapped in a few commands and she started floating up and back into her launch pad as Ichika floated over from his vantage point, looking at him after restoring his IS I said "let's see if you have any better luck" and crouched into a fighting position as I set a counter off, he did the same thing while saying with a grin "no hard feelings when I win?" and I grinned right back saying "I could say the same to you" and we charge at each other.

We met in the middle and stayed on the ground as we darted around each other, trying to get a hit in but getting knocked aside by the others defence, after a good three quarters of an hour, we stopped and I felt a strange tingling around me, glancing at Diablos display I saw it was shutting down and for some reason I started seeing a strange glow around me but I just relaxed and let it cover me.

When the light cleared I was in a vast black space, the ground was compacted dirt and a ring of fire was the only illumination, looking around from the middle of the circle I saw someone with their back turned to me over by one of the sides, as I walked up behind him he turned to me and I couldn't hold in my laughter at his weird face, his skin was a metallic black that reflected the fire around us, his eyes were a bright red and his pupils were slitted, looking closer I saw there were what looked like tattoos spreading around his eyes from the iris just like the flames ringing my burn, his hair was a stark white compared to his skin and he was wearing a copy of my school outfit only in opposite colours, when I had stopped laughing I asked calmly "so were am I?" and he grinned toothily, showing very pointed teeth, before saying in a voice that sounded exactly like mine, **"we're in your head"** and I took another look around before shacking my head and saying matter of factly "can't be. My head's way more interesting than this, where's all the data, all the IS specs, the plans, contracts, etc.?"

This caused the strange black man (no racism intended) to start chuckling before saying **"we're in the part of your head that you let me have"** and I contemplated this before asking "and you are?" which incited him to give an extravagant bow before saying **"the embodiment of Diablo, at your service"** and I nodded calmly at this before looking around again and asking distractedly "ok… and why am I here?" and Diablo chuckled again before going all business on me and saying **"you are here to work out a deal with me so that I don't simply incinerate your brain the next time you try to activate me. If we can make a deal then I will continue to fight with you and you get to keep living"** I nodded again and stepped closer, asking as I crept my hand back to my knife sheath, "fair enough, but…" and I wiped my knife out and held it up to his throat as I asked with a kind smile "what's to stop me from simply beating the shit out of you and making it so I rule? After all, we are in my head" he smirked at this, which unnerved me slightly, before raising his arm and snapping his fingers.

The second he did I was suddenly hanging spread eagle in the air in the middle of the ring of fire and couldn't move a muscle, he calmly strode up to me and said **"like I said, this is the part of your head that you let me have. I am in complete control here. Besides what happened to seeing me as a partner?"** and I smirked as I said cheerfully "oh that was before I knew you were a sadistic bigot willing to stir fry my brain inside my own skull" which squeezed a chuckle from us both, he waved his hand airily, saying as he did **"no one's perfect. Besides, I had to see if you were worthy of fighting with me"** and I raised an eyebrow as I asked "so did I pass or are you just going to kill me?" and he grinned sadistically before saying in a thick, distorted version of my voice **"we have yet to make a deal. But how about this for the time being, I let you continue fighting with me, and you let me have some fun every now and again. How does that sound?"**

I smirked as I said "don't have much choice in the matter do I? fine you can have your fun, but we need to iron out the details later, got it?" and his grin widened as he reached up and grabbed my hand I a firm shake, almost cackling as he said **"deal"** and there was a flash of light before I was back in the arena across from Ichika.

I looked at the virtual representation of Diablo and saw he had changed just like Byakushiki, I grinned as I called out to Ichika spreading my arms wide "what do you think?" resolving to think about my new tenant later as I examined what Diablo now looked like through Byakushiki, his wings had stretched out longer so if I had them lined up straight down they would have been a bit taller than me, they were segmented so I could bend them like normal wings as well, they had six strange tubes sticking out of them with three on each side, like boosters, his feet had split so he had swivel ankles and four opposable toes to grab things with, he also had strange arched blades held on top of the wings, the body armour only covered my chest, leaving my stomach bare, the back was a strip that ran up my spine and split over my shoulders, the back had three spikes that curved up sticking out of it, even the head piece had grown four horns on it.

The hands fit like gloves with sharp finger tips, the arms just slightly thickened out over the rest and reached up to the middle of my biceps, leaving the rest of my arm uncovered, the other major change was that he had a whole network of white flame decals all over him, like tribal war paint and on my chest was a perfect copy of the burn on my hand and Diablo's eyes, opening his menus I scanned through them and once I saw all the new additions I grinned again and shut the screens down, calling out to Ichika "I introduce to you the new and improved…Diablo!" and gave a bow just like Diablos as I sent out the booster like things and hands popped out of them, holding a knife each, and I sent them spiralling off to start hacking away at Ichika who was struggling to keep them back. I slowly made my way over to him, spinning my knives, as I got closer I pulled back the boosters one at a time until it was just me and him, me grinning like one of those scary clowns and him panting and out of breath, I said with a slight cackle at the end **"this was fun but it's time to die now!"**

I darted forward, slicing into him, denting the IS and cutting him all over, after a bit a message popped up that said the knives were about to break, I ignored it and kept going until they did in fact snap, jumping back from him I looked at the handles not fully understanding before holding my arms out, a pair of the extra arms floated around and I tossed the broken knives up as the other arms dropped theirs, I grinned again at the shocked look on his face and darted right back in, he hit me every now and then but I ignored them as they only hit the shield and not me, unlike my strikes that went straight through the shield and hit him or the IS, he jumped back from me and called something to me, I wasn't really listening, only focusing on his moves to see if he would attack again and I saw him tense up and charge straight at me, swinging at my head and something in me held still even tho I would probably get knocked out.

A part of me, the one that sounded like the voice I used when calculating or working something out, said _"you're not thinking straight, this isn't like you, you need to calm down and let this end!"_ but another, louder voice that sounded like Diablos distorted one called over it _**"what are you waiting for! When he gets close enough you can take his head off! It would make such a fine trophy don't you think?"**_and I found myself nodding, but to which voice I didn't know until I stayed there and let him hit me, looking into his eyes I sent him a look that I hoped said _"thanks, I needed that"_ before I was sent flying back from him and collapsed into a heap, Diablo shining and shrinking until he was nothing but a black snake ring, coiling around my middle finger on the hand with the flaming snake eye, looking up at the sky I saw Ichika leaning over me, saying something I couldn't hear, I gave a small smile and managed to mumble "thanks…I needed to be stopped…we are definitely going to talk about this" the last part directed at my new ring as I struggled to my feet.

ignoring everything around me I waved my hand up in front of my eye and whispered, not sure where the words came from "raise hell, Diablo" and he shot out of the ring, covering me again before I jumped up and flew off, not really heading anywhere, just mindlessly drifting, ignoring the shouts from below and the calls for me to come back, I drifted towards the main land and then the tunnel that led to my home, my true home, and when I made it there I deactivated Diablo and set about reactivating everything, saying out loud to the silence I had grown used to in my many years here "looks like I may be back for a while" and closed the doors, locking them, and went and collapsed onto my bed too tired to argue with Diablo just yet.

But of course life wouldn't let me have a nap before sorting out the homicidal bastard in my head, no instead, the second I closed my eyes I was sent back to that burning ring and had to roll out of the way of the aggravated stomp that would have broken my nose had Diablo managed to hit me, as I came up I said in mock anger "hey! Watch were you're walking will ya! Even if this is in my head I don't want my nose broken" and all I received was a snarl before he bellowed in his distorted voice **"WE MADE A DEAL! YOU GET TO FIGHT WITH ME, I GET TO HAVE MY FUN!"** and I raised my hand to silence him before stating "that was before I knew what kind of fun you meant. We need to work this out before you hurt anyone else" and he quieted down slightly before saying in a strained voice **"the only thing we have to talk about is why you stopped me!"** and I said, getting irritated now, "because he is my friend and I won't let you hurt him!"

This caused him to pause for a moment before doubling over with laughing, managing to choke out **"you actually consider those weaklings friends? I'm all you should need!"** and I raised an eyebrow as I muttered "someone has a superiority complex" before I raised my voice so he could hear me and said "yes they're my friends. I've lived my life alone and I know the value of help and friendship when I see it" he stopped again and actually pondered this before asking in a much calmer tone **"fair enough, you have your views I have mine. But what I still don't understand is how you managed to ignore and then override my influence"** and I had to pause as well before shrugging nonchalantly and saying "your guess is as good as mine" but then a digitized version of my voice called out "that would be me" and a flash of light later cleared to show a teched out version of me.

He had patches of metal instead of skin in places, his hair looked like it was made of a large cluster of grey wires, his smoky grey eyes looked like they had sparks shooting around in them and his left arm was completely covered in panels and buttons, he was wearing my old outfit minus the beanie (the singlet, jeans, knife belt) he glanced at Diablo before turning to me and saying "we have visitors" and I just blinked at him before muttering loud enough for them to hear me "I must be insane. No sane person has three personalities in their head" which incited a chuckle from Diablo and the same calm stare from the tech me, I asked after a few moments of awkward silence "so I have to get up now right?" and I received a nod as he said in that digitized monotone "correct" and I nodded as well before turning to Diablo and saying warningly "we'll finish this later, until then, no hurting!" before the strange mind scape faded away.

I snapped awake with the alarms blaring and I dashed over to see who it was, sighing when I saw the others gathered around the main door, shutting the alarms down I went and opened the door, stepping to the side and saying with a forced grin "welcome to my humble little stronghold" and once they were all in I shut the door locking it again, saying over my shoulder to the gasping Cecilia "calm down, this is so no one can break in while I'm focusing on you lot. There are a lot of people who would like to see me dead" and I walked past them to the living area, gesturing to the couches and chairs I had set up and asked "anyone want a drink or something?" awkwardly seeing as I didn't entertain visitors much, after they had made their orders I ducked into the kitchen area and gathered the requested drinks and snacks, carrying them all in I set them down and Houki asked from her seat on one of the couches "wasn't that heavy?" and I gave her a confused look saying "I had to drag everything you see here around to get it in its place and you think I would find ten or twelve plates heavy? I had to carry all my IS thefts myself to boot" before turning and collapsing into one of the large chairs looking over them all.

At last I asked "did you come for a reason or were you just hoping to see where I have been living my life?" the last part directed at Cecilia as she was looking around at the place mumbling "it's almost as big as my house" and she blushed marginally when she noticed my stare until Chifuyu stated "we came to try and work out what happened yesterday" and I blinked, turning to look at the digital clocks on my screens and I muttered out loud when I saw it was at least ten hours later, not caring if they heard me "I must have been really really worn out to have been out of it this long" and looked back over to Ichika and said "by the way, sorry about all the cuts and stuff, don't really know what came over me" I lied, hoping to keep Diablo and this techno version of myself a secret, at least until it was all sorted out, he shrugged, wincing slightly in doing so but smiled and said "it's all right" but glancing at Houki and slightly to my surprise Cecilia, it wasn't alright by them.

Looking to Chifuyu I asked "so who became class rep anyway?" and Ichika started to say "since Cecilia won she-" but Cecilia cut him off, saying "Ichika will be class rep" and I stared at her in confusion along with the rest of them but all she said was "I will explain my reasons in class" and wouldn't say another word about it, giving up I shrugged and got up to check the requests I had stacked up since I had been gone, running through them I didn't hear the others coming in behind me until Maya-sensei spoke in my ear "impressive" and I twitched away, looking at all the people in my lab, snapping at Ichika "hands off!" as he had been about to touch one of the main processors and stated to the lot of them "if you can't keep your hands to yourself I'll cut them off" and turned back to the screens again, after highlighting a few interesting job offers Maya-sensei asked from behind me, studying the multiple processors and screens, outlets and inlets, and completely refurbished hardware "did you put all this together yourself?"

I smirked as I said with my gaze still on the main screens in front of me "it took a while to get all the parts in here, but having a whole network of thieves and such can be useful for more than just job offers and money. Sometimes the things I steal will be of a high enough calibre that I might feel like keeping it" and she gasped as she asked "so you stole all this?" and I shrugged and said "most of it yes, some I built from bits of scrap I have from other projects" and she asked, amazed again "could I see some of them?" and I spun around and gave a genuine smile at her, for her genuine interest in my craft and said "follow me" and strode past the others who had been watching from the door, not trusting themselves to not touch anything, and followed me to the room I kept all the scrap and IS parts in, heading over to the only clear space I pulled a cover away to reveal a number of half-finished circuit bored's, wiring and casings, I sat with Maya-sensei and talked hardware.

After a few minutes of talking I shouted without looking over at the others "Ichika, if you touch that I won't have to cut your hand off, that device will do it for me. Cecilia, stop trying to find my money, you would need years to have any chance. Houki and Chifuyu, if you're hungry then ask and I'll get you something." Before glancing over at the stunned faces I saw, even Chifuyu was shocked and I grinned at her, then chuckled slightly as I worked out were the techno me had come from if Diablo came from his ring, before standing and turning my back to them, pulling up the hair that covered my neck to show them the scar I had given myself when I did some personal remodelling, explaining as I turned back "I implanted a chip into my skull that connects to my brain allowing me to see and hear everything that goes on in here, no matter what" and pointed out a few of the cameras I had around, saying while pointing at one behind them were they had lined up after I called them out "Cecilia is scratching her right ring finger with her left pointer finger" with utter certainty and smirked at the gasps they let out as they looked behind Cecilia to see if I was right.

Leading them all back out into the living room I sat and said "I guess we should head back before class starts, huh?" and Chifuyu nodded but stated in a firm voice "we will be speaking about yesterday, just not today" and I set about locking everything down again before following them out and nervously calling Diablo out with the strange words again "raise hell, Diablo" hoping he would behave as I sent the extra hands out to them, scooping them up so it was like they were in metal chairs, Chifuyu even making it look like she was in a little personal throne, before I sped back off for the academy.

XXX

A/N: well there you have it, Stratos has a sadistic bigot and an unimotional-robo-construct-thing in his head (small request, i can't for the life of me think up a name for the Techno Stratos so please send in suggestions...please...i'm dying here).

**Diablo: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A SADISTIC BIGOT WHEN YOUR BUSY MAKING A CHARACTER WHO ACTS LIKE THEY BELONG IN A MENTAL ASYLUM!?**

Me: WHAT THE HELL YOU ASSWIPE!? DON'T GO SPOUTING MY IDEAS AROUND LIKE THAT! and while yes i am in the process of making a couple of stories with character who _could_ be considered homicidal sociopaths...

**Diablo: could my ass, one of them-*GAH***

Me: oh no you don't! *adds more duck tape to Diablo's face* your not spoiling anything else! especially when i don't even know when i'll end up putting either of them up.

Stratos: maybe you should stop now.

Me: *pauses in rapid taping spree of Diablo's head* why?

Stratos: -_- because his head looks like a ball of duck tape.

Me: *looks at large ball of duck tape in place where Diablo's head should be* nah, can't be stuffed. *goes right back to taping*

Stratos: *sweatdrops* well since tornado surfer is... indisposed at the moment i'll finish this by reminding you all of a few things, ahem:

-any and all pointless complaints will be met with blatant insults and threats then ignored.

-any and all constructive criticism will be accepted and taken into acount.

-updates will be few and far between because his computer sucks and their internet is not much better

Me: THANKS FOR READING! tornado surfer signing off.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: well here we are, the thrid instalment of Street Wise In A School. hurry for me for actually making it this far when i degrade meself all the time... any who, a note for the comment on the last instalment... i have absolutly no bloody clue why the hell i felt the need to imput that little tit bit about the other stories because they are no where near being ready to be put up. at some point in time i may put them up that time is a fair way away from now. but on a more focused note ENJOY TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES WHEN THE ONLY THING TO ENJOY HAPPANS TO NOT BE OWNED BY ME!

key:

"talking"

_"thinking"_

(my comments)

**"IS talking"**

**_"IS thinking"_**

"other talking"

_"other thinking"_

time to read on dear readers

* * *

Ep.3: a new old friend

The next day in class Maya-sensei came in and said we would be heading outside for some IS practice, we all headed out to the change rooms, Ichika ran ahead of us all to change before the girls got there, but I walked with them, talking to a few if they weren't staring at me too strangely, when we got there I shrugged my jacket off and tossed it into the locker I was assigned and headed out to the practice area, smirking at the scowl I was getting from Chifuyu who was in a white track suit next to Maya-sensei who was in a green version and I started grinning when I heard the girls coming out and a few were even complaining about how I hadn't actually changed with them.

Once we were all set out in our lines Chifuyu called out "we will be practising some basic flight maneuvers" then called out our names "Orimura, Alcott, Stratos" and we all stepped out to the front and she instructed us "give a demonstration flight" and Cecilia said "certainly" closing her eyes and focusing, her blue earing started glowing and Blue Tears expanded out, covering her and she started floating up a few feet, I raised my hand in front of my eye and whispered "raise hell, Diablo" and swept it away as he encased me, I floated up a bit and then leant back, crossing my arms behind my head so it looked like I was laying down on thin air, making the wings flap on either side of me like they were actually keeping me up and lazily drifted around calling as I went "I could actually fall asleep like this" with a contented grin, looking over to Ichika, he had his eyes closed and was focusing, but nothing was happening.

He looked down at the thick white bracelet I noticed he had and muttered "umm…wha…?" as Chifuyu called out to him "get a move on, a veteran pilot takes less than a second to activate." And he got a worried look on his face before calming down and muttering "concentrate" and clapped his hand over the bracelet, calling out as it started glowing "come, Byakushiki" and held his arm up as Byakushiki flared to life around him, when he was out Ichika looked at his hands and said "I did it" and Chifuyu called out to us "now fly!" and I levelled out before shooting straight up a few hundred feet, spiralling around the area, looking over to Cecilia she was doing a mirrored version of what I was and so I shot over to her, _"a game of chicken won't do any harm"_ I thought as we zoomed closer and closer together, until we both shot up at the same time and flew like that for a bit, us looking straight at each other, until we peeled away and spiralled around each other, kind of like a dance, looking over to Ichika, he was just getting off the ground, having watched our display along with the rest of the class, and was wobbling around, trying to stabilize.

When he straightened out he flew up to us and we spun around each other for a bit, I looked over to Cecilia and smirked when I saw the same look in her eyes as she watched Ichika that I saw in Houki's eyes whenever she looked at him, making a note to myself to let Houki know of her newest rival, we stopped after a bit when Chifuyu patched into our speaker systems and said to Ichika, "your too slow, strictly spec-wise, Byakushiki is faster than both of the others" and I pulled up a list of Byakushiki's data next to a list of Diablo's and chuckled as I muttered "must not have any real data on Diablo if she thinks that" as I looked over to see he trying to speed up while muttering "so I'm supposed to visualize a pyramid in front of me, right?" he dropped his head as he said "I don't understand this at all"

I was about to help when Cecilia said to him, "imagining is imagining, no matter what it is you see. It's more constructive to look for something that works for you" as we had drifted over to him, I saw Cecilia was smiling and blushing slightly and when she looked at me I smirked and winked at her to show I could read her as simply as I could read anyone, causing her to blush a bit more.

Looking to Ichika he sighed and said "I don't have a good handle on flying" and he raised his hand to look at it and asked "how is this even flying anyway?" and Cecilia asked hesitantly "if you like, I could help explain things for you after school?" and he just went "huh?" but I cut in saying "thanks but I'm supposed to be teaching him about IS theory subjects, and the rest is being taught to him by Houki" and I smothered a smirk at the look of anger she directed at me.

Before things could escalate Chifuyu called up to us "Orimura, Alcott, Stratos, do a dive followed by a rapid stop" and I called back "righto" while Cecilia and Ichika said "roger" and so we all shot down, I looked to Cecilia and Ichika and called over the wind, "let's see who can get the closest to the ground before stopping?" and Ichika grinned before nodding along with a more reluctant Cecilia, and so we poured on the speed, getting closer and closer, Cecilia and I pulled ahead of Ichika and I flipped just as I could have stretched my arms out and touched the ground, Cecilia flipped just a few seconds before me, so I looked back up for Ichika and saw him falling way to fast to stop, I called out to him "slow down you moron!" and he heard me to late as he only had time to hold his arms up in front of himself before he ploughed into the ground, sending up a huge cloud of dust, I shot into the cloud and sent the extra arms off, positioning them like a fan I had them spin until the dust was gone and we saw the hole Ichika had dug with his face.

Everyone gathered around the edge of the hole and looked in at me and Ichika, I was rolling around on the ground laughing at how Ichika had managed to fall so he was presenting the entire class with a wonderful view of his butt, when he managed to pull his face from the ground he said "that hurt…I thought I was going to die" and I started laughing harder when Chifuyu just frowned and said "idiot! What are you doing, making a hole in the practice area" and he managed to roll over and apologize "sorry about that" I managed to help him up as Houki stated angrily "shame on you, Ichika. You haven't learnt a thing I tried to teach you have you?" but she was shoved aside when Cecilia came running over and jumped into the hole to see if he was alright, "are you hurt Ichika-san? Any injuries anywhere?" and he stuttered as she was staring intently at his face on close quarters, "n-no I'm fine thanks" but then he seemed to think about what she had said and asked confused "wait… 'Ichika'-san?" but she simply said "I'm glad you're not hurt, but you should visit the nurse just in case"

She leaned in closer asking with a sparkle in her eyes "if you want, I could take you-" but she was cut over by Houki who had come down and was saying "it's not necessary. He was wearing an IS so he couldn't be hurt" and Cecilia turned to her saying "oh Shinonono-san, it is natural to worry about others" and Houki said "who would believe that coming from you, conniving cat" and I spoke up saying "that's no fair" and Cecilia smiled at me until I finished with "cats are no were near as horrid as her" as she then gave me one of her well-practiced hair flips and said to Houki "it's still better than wearing a demons mask" and Houki started grinding her teeth at this, they leant in like they were about to take a swing at each other and I thought _"looks like I won't have to let Houki know after all"_ and grinned at the enraged girls as Ichika stood next to me, puzzling over why they were fighting so much, and I grinned even more at how blind he was to the feelings of the two girls.

At the end of the day we walked in to the cafeteria, me, Ichika, Houki, and Cecilia, as the class shouted "congratulations Orimura-kun, on being elected class rep." and they even had a few party poppers out as well, he asked confused as we sat at a table surrounded by well-wishers who were serving us a free meal "why am I class rep?" and Cecilia said "it is because I declined the position" causing me to spit out the mouth full of drink I had had in favour of declaring "you!? Give up a position of authority?! Someone call a religious official and see if hell has frozen over yet" but she ignored me and continued "you did lose the match, but that is to be expected, after all, you were fighting against me" and again I cut in saying "I beat you, I even did it on the default settings" and again she ignored me, but I did see her eyebrow twitching a few times before she continued with a coy smile "so I reflected on my actions that day, making a scene and such, and decided you should become the class representative."

One of the other girls sitting with us said "you did the right thing Cecilia-san" and another said as Cecilia sat back down "yep. We've got the boy, so we should pamper him." And I stated loudly "I am sitting here, right? Not having some bizarre out of body experience? Really? You're all just going to ignore me? Fine be that way, ya damn pricks" I muttered that last part, and again I was ignored as Houki stated in a monotone "my, aren't you the popular one Ichika" and he had a frown on as he asked "you really thinks so?" causing her to harrumph with a turn, looking away from him, he asked her "why are you in such a bad mood?" but she was saved from answering when someone took a photo of them and said in a loud voice "hey! I'm from the journalism club, would it be ok if I got a photo of him with you as well Cecilia-chan?" the last part directed at Cecilia who asked coyly "the two of us?" and the journalist said with that huge smile of hers "of course, you're the famous pair with personal IS" and so I cut in again saying "would it get any of your attention if I said I have a personal IS as well? Or maybe the fact I hacked into the school mainframe and fought both of these two when I had been told by Chifuyu not to? Anyone?" and I slumped back into my seat and finished my drink in silence as they all continued to ignore me, my only consolation was when Houki patted my shoulder good naturedly.

The journalist said "a shot of you shaking hands would be good." And Cecilia said with a faint blush "really?" and leaned forward to emphasise her question "I will get a copy of the picture right?" and the journalist said "of course! Come on now, up up" as she beckoned them to stand, Ichika sighed but stood with a far more enthusiastic Cecilia and the journalist instructed them "come on, a hand shake please, smile more, a bit closer" she directed them from behind her camera, looking to Houki I smothered a laugh at her strained calm as she looked at Cecilia and Ichika holding hands and leaning closer together, the journalist asked "ready? Say cheese!" and snapped the photo.

Seconds before she took the photo, a group of the other girls had shoved their way into the shot, including Houki, who had managed to slid in between Ichika and Cecilia with her eyes closed the whole time, after Cecilia shouted "why is everyone in the picture!?" throwing her arms up and shoving the other girls back, one said "calm down already" another said "you're not tricking us Cecilia" and she just stood there fuming as Ichika chuckled from behind Houki, when we got back to the dorms I collapsed on my bed and proceeded to laugh until Cecilia came in and smashed a pillow over my face and tried to smother me, I managed to shove her over and got on top of her saying with a grin "nice try, but you're going to have to do better to get him and you know it" I let her up and shrugged my jacket off and pulled my singlet over my head, grabbing a towel I said to Cecilia "I'm going to have a shower, you can get changed while I'm in there" and went in for a chance to relax.

The next day in class, talk was mostly about the upcoming interclass tournament, we had congregated around Ichika's seat and were discussing the different class reps, one of the other girls asked "hey, did you hear about the class rep switch in class 2?" another said "right, didn't a transfer student take over?" and I asked "a transfer this late in the term?" one of the other girls said "yea, I hear she's from china" and Cecilia said in an over confident tone "I wonder if their getting reinforcements to counter me" and Ichika simply asked "I wonder if she's strong?" and one of the girls that had been keeping tabs on the other class' said "only class 1 and 4 have reps with personal IS'. I'm sure she's nothing special" but a new voice called from the door "your information is out of date!" and we all turned to look at the girl with green eyes, brown hair that was in two separate pony tails from the sides of her head, and a personalised uniform, as in, she had separated the sleeves from the jacket to leave her shoulders bare.

She stated in a tone as overconfident and haughty as Cecilia's "the new class 2 rep has a personal IS. You won't win the tournament so easily!" as I delved into my mind to try and find anything on this new girl, I came up when I heard Ichika said as he stood up from his seat "Rin? Is that you Rin?" and she declared grandly "that's right! National representative candidate of china, Huang Lingyin!" and she pointed at Ichika saying "I'm here to declare my challenge to you guys!" which raised a smirk and a loud chuckle from me, as I had a fair bit of data on her and found her quiet funny.

One of the other girls asked "she's the transfer student who joined class 2?" another was gasping in awe "representative candidate of china…" and all Cecilia asked quietly "w-who is she to act so close to Ichika-san?" and Ichika grinned as he said "Rin…why are you acting so cool? That's not like you at all." and she blushed slightly as she shouted at him "how dare you!?"

Before she could continue, Chifuyu walked up behind her and smacked her in the head, causing her to mutter "ow…" before turning and shouting at her, not realising who it was "what the heck was that for!?" but blanched when she saw it was Chifuyu who simply stated "it's time for class to start" and Rin stuttered "Chi-Chifuyu-san…" and Chifuyu stated "call me Orimura-sensei" causing me to start chuckling again as she said "get back to your class, you're in my way" and she stuttered an apology as she moved out of the way but turned to shout at Ichika "I'll be back later, so don't you go running off Ichika!" before turning and dashing out of the room, all Ichika asked was "she's a national representative candidate?" while I was asking to no one in particular "why would he run, and where would he run to? We're on an island for god's sake" before class started.

At lunch we met up with Rin and we started talking, Ichika said "you surprised me, turning up like that" and she turned back to look at him as he continued "I would never have guessed you would be the transfer student from class 2. You should have called" he finished with a smile and she simply said "if I had called I would have ruined the dramatic entrance I had been planning." And he asked with a grin "so, you still having a rough time with Chifuyu-nee?" and she muttered "i-it's not that, it's… just not okay with her" and I dashed up behind her and swiped the plate of ramen she had ordered, causing her to start shouting obscenities at my retreating back, and I heard Ichika laugh and ask "you still like your ramen huh? We haven't seen each other in almost a year. Have you been well?" before I was out of hearing range and at a free table, scarfing the ramen until they all came over to sit with me, well some other girls, Houki and Cecilia sat with me, Ichika and Rin sat at the next table over to talk.

Listening to their conversation, Ichika was asking "how have you been? It was pretty surprising when you turned up like that" and she turned to him with a smile and said "_you_ surprised _me_ when I saw you on the news" and she turned to scowl at me as she asked "why wasn't he on the news as well?" and I called over to them "because they only found out about me when I showed up, balancing on the top of the spiral spire out font" and smirked when she blanched after realising we could hear them, but Ichika just kept talking, saying "I didn't think I would end up enrolled in here either" and Rin turned back to him saying "I heard you accidently moved an IS during an entrance exam. How did that even happen?" and he leaned back, reflecting as he said "well…" and was silent for a bit as he collected his thoughts before reciting what happened.

"The high school entrance exam I took was held in a multipurpose room, and I got lost trying to find it. I asked for directions but they didn't make any sense so I just kept wandering around until… I opened one of the doors around me and I saw an IS inside. I walked up to it and placed my hand on it, not sure what made me do it but, when I touched it it started shining and moving, then the doors opened behind me and some of the staff member came in yelling at me about how I shouldn't be there until they stopped and saw that the IS was responding to me." And he seemed to come back to the present after that and turned back to her finishing with "a lot happened to me after that and I ended up here." And all Rin did was go "huh…funny stuff" causing Houki and Cecilia to stand and go over to them, slamming their hands on the table as Houki asked "Ichika, I demand an explanation!"

Cecilia leant forward and asked with a huge stutter "are you d-d-d-d-d-dating this girl?" causing me to start laughing out loud at them and for everyone to look over at me as I got up and made my way over to behind them, patting their heads I said through my chuckling "she's an old friend of his you paranoid idiots" and Ichika nodded calmly saying "he's right" causing Rin to groan while staring at him strangely, she either wanted to kiss him or kill him… I wasn't quite sure, and just looked back at her and asked "what's wrong?" and she turned her head from him and stated "nothing" and after a few minutes Houki asked "childhood friends?" and Ichika looked back at them saying "oh right, she transferred in right after you left" and he introduced them to Rin, "this is Houki Shinonono" gesturing to Houki as he turned back to her and asked "I told you about her didn't I? She's my first childhood friend, and you would be the second" and I heard Houki whispering to herself with a blush "first…" and Rin hummed saying "I see…nice to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you" and by the look in her eyes, it was like she was a predator sizing up her next meal.

Looking to Houki I saw the same look in her eyes as she nodded and said "likewise" and we all looked to Cecilia when she coughed to get our attention as she said, annoyed "I don't want you all to forget I'm here, I am Cecilia Alcott, national representative candidate of England" and she gave a self-satisfied smile as she said "Ichika and I recently competed for the role of class representative" but Rin ignored her at the end and asked Ichika while Cecilia was still talking "I heard you won the role of class rep for class 1!" and Cecilia kept talking while we all ignored her as Ichika said humbly "yeah, things ended up like that." And Rin asked him "you want me to help you train? Like piloting an IS." And he smiled saying "that would be great" and we all looked back to Cecilia when she asked, even more annoyed "were you even listening to me?" and Rin calmly said to her "sorry, not interested"

Cecilia stated "how dare you!" slamming her hands onto the table and leaning in on Rin as Houki did the same to say to her "it's my job to train Ichika" and Cecilia added "you belong in class 2! We don't need our enemy's helping us!" and all Rin did was give a faintly scary smile and say "I'm talking with Ichika, outsiders should butt out!" and a few more tense minutes followed until Cecilia said "you're being quiet impudent, being the new girl and all" and Rin said "I'm not new tho, I've known him longer than you have" and I chuckled at this adding "even I've known him longer than you Cecilia" but Houki cut in saying "if it's going like this then I've known him the longest! He's even come over to my house for meals" and Rin said confidently "mine too" causing the two girls to gasp and for me to look at Ichika with a raised eyebrow, mouthing my question so they didn't hear "do you want me to get rid of them?" and he simply shook his head and mouthed back "not yet, give them some time to get to know each other" and I shrugged as they continued.

Rin continued saying "he was coming over to my house for meals since the primary school days" and Houki turned to Ichika and asked "what is this?! I never knew about this!" and Cecilia leant over as well to say "neither did I!" Ichika said "I only ate at her family's restaurant" and they pulled back as Cecilia gasped and Houki asked "oh? It was only a restaurant?" and dropped her head in relief as Cecilia said "if it's only a restaurant then it's nothing special" and Ichika turned back to Rin and asked "is your father all right?" and she mumbled "yeah, I think so" but before they could ask anything else the bell went for class to start and so she picked up the second bowl of ramen she had ordered and said to Ichika as she walked off "see you after school, I'll come by when practice is over so set some time aside" and I started dragging the girls back to class as they had started heading after Rin and called over my shoulder to Ichika "see you in class, I'll take these two ahead" and just kept walking with the two of them complaining the whole way back.

After school in the training arena Cecilia was asking "Shinonono-san, what is the meaning of this?" and Houki said "I got permission to use a training unit, starting today, I will be training him with this" and I muttered without really meaning to "Uchigane, japans mass production unit, primarily a close combat unit, primarily a hover unit unable to stay in the air for prolonged amounts of time…" and blinked at them staring at me as I said sheepishly "sorry, I tend to spout information when I'm bored" and yawned again as Cecilia muttered "I didn't think she would get permission so fast" Houki drew the sword that all Uchigane came with, and said "let's begin Ichika" and he had Byakushiki materialise his sword and said "right" but before they could begin Cecilia called out "wait! I'm the one training Ichika" and as she spoke she brought out Blue Tears, as Houki ignored her and said "we're starting Ichika" Cecilia said "I'm your partner Ichika!" they tuned on each other and started arguing.

I called out Diablo and sent a pair of hands to grab Houki and a pair to grab Cecilia, leading them away I said to Ichika "I'll spar with you, you won't get much done with those two" while gesturing to the two arguing girls who had still not noticed I had moved them, Ichika sweat dropped and said "you're probably right, I still don't know why they argue so much" and I grinned as I pulled my knives out, saying "if you can't work it out yourself, then I see no point in telling you" and he sank into a fighting position asking "you know what's wrong with them?" I nodded as we charged at each other, he asked "why won't you tell me?" and I said while sending the last pair of hands I had out to the girls and clamping their mouths shut and calling so they could hear "because if they won't tell you and you can't figure it out, then I don't see why I have to ruin the amusing show of them arguing and you being clueless" I smirked at the end and continued striking at him as he did the same to me until we had been going for at least three hours.

I stopped his last attack and said "we should go back to the dorms and get some sleeps" and he simply nodded, to busy panting to answer, Cecilia and Houki left first while I and Ichika took a few minutes to catch our breaths, in the change rooms Ichika asked "this is going to continue until the tournament?" and I smirked saying "it's better than two on one isn't it?" and he gave a rueful grin at this, but we turned when someone called out from behind us "good work Ichika!" and we saw Rin waling over with a drink and a towel asking "a sports drink ok with you?" walking past me and handing the drink to him, after taking a few big gulps he threw it over to me and I took a mouthful as well, nodding my thanks and chucking it back, as Ichika asked Rin "you were waiting for us?" and Rin giggled as she turned to glare at me saying "more or less" before turning a beaming smile back on Ichika, I pulled my jacket on and waved over my shoulder as I walked off saying "see you tomorrow Ichika" and I heard his farewell along with the grateful sigh from Rin.

Ducking around through the lockers I came around until I was on the other side of the ones they were on and heard Rin muttering "we're finally alone" and Ichika said "yeah" I was sure she was probably blushing but couldn't look without them seeing me so I stayed put and listened to her starting to speak, saying "Ichika…" and she seemed to cheer up a bit as she asked "was it lonely not having me around?" and he said "well it always fells lonely when you lose a friend" and she complained "that's not what I meant! I'm the childhood friend you met after your blank period, so you've got something to say don't you?" and he suddenly said "oh yeah! I forgot something important!" and I could almost imagine the look on her face, shock, hope, fear, maybe even anger for him taking so long, all rolled in to one, as he asked "did you call anyone from our middle school? I bet they'll be happy your back" and almost laughed out loud as I heard her sigh and slump, before she shouted "that's not what I meant! Like-" but she was cut off when he said "sorry, it's starting to get cold, so I'm heading back to my room, I'm sure Houki will be out of the shower by now."

Rin asked confused "shower?" and I heard her get up and move as she asked "Houki is that girls from earlier, right? What's your relationship with her?" and he simply said "a childhood friend, first childhood friend. And you're the second childhood friend" and she get angrier as she asked "what's does being a childhood friend have to do with a shower?" and he said "I share a room Houki at the moment" and she simply went "huh?!" and he explained "they couldn't get a room for me" and she asked hesitantly "so your sleeping in the same room as her?" and he said "yeah, but I'm glad it was Houki. If I was pared with someone I didn't know I would lose a ton of sleep from being so nervous all the time" and I think she slumped again because he asked "what's wrong?" and she muttered "so it's fine as long as it's a childhood friend" and he went "huh?" and so she shouted it again before he said "yeah pretty much" and she said "good" before trotting off and I walked around the lockers and Ichika jumped when he saw me, asking "how long were you there for?"

I shrugged and said "more or less the whole time" and he slumped and said "I don't understand girls at all" and I shrugged again, saying "don't see how. I can hardly know someone and yet know almost exactly what their thinking in seconds" and he sighed as I walked past him, patting his shoulder as I passed saying "good luck." As I was walking to my room I headed the roundabout way to pass some time so Cecilia had time to change and had no reason to get mad at me, as I was heading up to my room I stopped when I heard arguing in Ichika and Houki's room, stopping and leaning against the door I listened to what sounded like Rin, Houki and Ichika arguing over who gets to share a room with Ichika, Houki was shouting "if you won't leave then…" and a small clatter then Ichika was shouting "stop" so I opened the door and dashed in, calling out Diablo's arm I held it up and took the swing from the practice sword that Houki had been swinging at Rin, I heard Ichika muttering "a partial activation, and so fast"

I ignored him and said to Houki "it's not a good idea to swing one of those at an unarmed person. Now why don't you put it down and explain what is going on" after she lowered the sword and Ichika explained how Rin had come in and was trying to get Houki to swap rooms with her so she could share a room with him and wouldn't leave when Houki told her to, I nodded and Rin hesitantly asked "you remember the promise, right?" and he took a few seconds to think before saying "is it the one, if you become a better cook…" and she perked up saying "yes! That's the one!" but paused when he finished with "…you'll treat me to sweet and sour pork every day?" and all she asked was "what?" as he asked "you promised to treat me to a free meal every day right? It's a great deal for a single male" and I nodded saying "unless you can cook" but before he could reply Rin slapped him so hard she left a red hand print on his face and she shouted at him "you bastard!" and he held his hands up in a peace full gesture saying "uh…Rin…?"

She shouted over him "you're such a jerk for not remembering a promise you made to a girl! Get bitten by a dog and die!" and he said, annoyed now "why are you so angry? I did remember didn't I?" but she shouted at him "the interpretation was wrong!" and he shouted at her "then explain it!" and she stuttered "e-explain it? I c-c-can't do that!" and they both took a pause, then Rin said "fine, how about this. The winner of the interclass tournament can demand one thing from the loser" and he agreed "sure thing, if I win you tell me how you interpreted it." And she growled at him before turning away and saying "you better be ready!" before picking up the duffle bag she had brought in with her and stamping out of the room.

Houki was the first to speak, saying "Ichika" and when he turned to her she shouted at him "go get kicked by a horse and die!" and I shrugged and said to the confused Ichika "well… good night" while waving over my shoulder and walking back to my room, taking my Jacket and singlet off before simply collapsing onto the bed.

Next week, the tournament set up was posted; Ichika and Rin were to fight in the first round, in the launch room, we had gathered around Ichika who was asking rhetorically "I have to fight Rin in the first round, huh?" before Maya-sensei posted a view of Rin's IS saying "her IS is Shenlong, like yours it's a close range fighter" and the view went down as Cecilia said "it will be different from when you fought against me, don't let your guard down" and Houki said "stay loose, remember your training and you'll do fine" and all I said was "good hunting" with a grin, as he looked out at the huge simitar she had on her back he said "looks like it would hurt a heck of a lot if I got hit by that" and I said to him "then don't"

There was an announcement calling out "move to your designated positions" and the guard opened for Ichika to head out into the arena, he shot out and flew up to his position and I turned and started heading for the launch pad I had used last time, hearing Houki and Cecilia following me, when we got there I sat down and pulled my knife out and opened the same camera views I had last time, only this time I had Rin's instead of Cecilia's point of view, Smirking when I heard Cecilia gasping as she saw how I had watched her match, but dropped it when Houki asked me "do you plan on doing the same thing this time?" and I said "that depends on what happens" and after a few minutes they both left me on my own to watch, and after opening a view of the observation room, I saw them enter to watch from there, I made myself comfortable to watch the fight as the counter started 3…2…1…and the fight was on.

* * *

A/N: AND CUT! well i think that went well. what about you guys?

Stratos: not bad, i still think you should hurry up and add the new girls you plan on putting in for me.

Me: DAMN IT ALL WHY THE HELL DO YOU LOT FEEL THE NEED TO SPOIL MY STUFF!?

**Diablo: don't blame us you retard, your the one writing this, not us!**

Me:... shuddup! *pimp slaps Diablo through a nearby wall* and stay gone!

Techno Stratos: that was uncalled for

Me: you want some of this too? *raises fist threateningly*

Techno Stratos: ... i will remain quiet now

Me: damn straight you will

Stratos: aaaanyway, back to the topic at hand, we here thank you for reading our story and hope to hold your interest for a while longer

Me: BYE ALL! tornado surfer signing off


	4. ALERT!

!ATTENTION ALL THOSE WHO BOTHER TO CHECK OUT THIS STORY!

hello all, for those of you who have read my story and been waiting ages for an update your in luck... sort of... maybe... kinda... not really...

okay look, the long and short of it is my internet is so fucked over and unreliable i am barely able to get this out at this point in time so don't get to uppity as i have expressly warned you now so no complaints.

to any of you who actually liked my story i am sad to say you will have to wait a bit longer for me to get around to it. i have been predisposed towards a Naruto fic i have been trying to get right for a while now, that coupled with the fact that after looking the story over i realized... it was even worse then i had first thought in comparison to what it could be.

so i feel it is in the stories best interest that i drop this attempt at it in favor of revamping it into an newer, hopefully better written, version of itself. i will leave this up because i honestly can't be fucked taking it down or doing anything with it for that matter...

anyway, to recap on this obviously short alert: don't expect much in short amounts of time, this story will be left as is for now, a new version will be put up when i can get around to it.

adios mi amigos, tornadosurfer signing off


End file.
